NEW DELHI: Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy was on Monday questioned by Delhi Police in connection with a case of writing an "inflammatory article". Swamy, accompanied by lawyers, reached the inter-state cell of Delhi Police's Crime Branch in the national capital at around 10:50 am and the questioning lasted for about two hours.
The Janata Party President, who has been granted interim protection till January 30 by the Delhi High Court against his arrest, claimed that he was called as a witness in the case.
"I was asked about the meaning of certain words. I told police that my original article was about 4,000 words and the published one was about 1,100 words. I told police that which all passages were deleted," he told reporters.
He claimed he wrote the article and emailed it to the newspaper when he was in the United States. "If you read the whole article, no case can made out of it," he said.
Asked whether the edited article reflected the spirit of the original, Swamy said it is the editor's prerogative to edit an article.
He alleged that the registration of case was politically motivated and it was done to ensure that he was jailed.
The registration of the case of spreading enmity between communities on October three came following a direction from the National Commission for Minorities.
Several people, including law student Shehzad Poonawala, also filed complaints against Swamy following the publication of the article in July, 2011.
Delhi High Court had on Friday last granted interim protection to Swamy and asked him to give an undertaking that he would not write such articles in the future. The court also issued notice to the Delhi Police, seeking its response to Swamy's anticipatory bail plea.
The Harvard-educated economic scholar, Swamy in an article in a newspaper had suggested Indian Hindus collectively respond to terror acts.
He wrote, "We need a collective mindset as Hindus to stand against the Islamic terrorist.....If any Muslim acknowledges his or her Hindu legacy, then we Hindus can accept him or her as a part of the Brihad Hindu Samaj (greater Hindu society) which is Hindustan.
"Others, who refuse to acknowledge this, or those foreigners who become Indian citizens by registration, can remain in India but should not have voting rights (which means they cannot be elected representatives)," Swamy had written.