National

HC stays arrest of Kumar Vishwas

On Monday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the arrest of former Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas in a case of allegedly making inflammatory statements against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

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HC stays arrest of Kumar Vishwas
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The case was registered against him by the Punjab Police on April 12. “The court stayed the arrest of Vishwas,” said Mayank Aggarwal, one of their counsels of Vishwas. The court of Justice Anoop Chitkara fixed July 4 as the next hearing date.


Vishwas had moved the high court last week, seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him. The high court had heard the petition on April 27 and then reserved its verdict for Monday. Ahead of the assembly elections, Vishwas had accused Kejriwal of supporting separatists. The Punjab Police, on April 20, visited the house of the former AAP leader, who is also a poet, in Ghaziabad and summoned him for questioning.


In his petition, Vishwas had submitted that the case registered against him was a “sheer abuse of process of law and politically motivated.” “How the investigating agency is proceeding, it is apparent that it is trying to curtail the petitioner's liberty by adopting a procedure unknown to law,” he had submitted.


Vishwas had submitted that the registration of the FIR against him was “absolutely illegal, arbitrary and unjust, and it is nothing but a means to wreak vengeance through politically motivated criminal investigation by using the state machinery for the oblique motive of political gain.”