NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has stayed the investigation in a criminal case against senior journalist Vinod Dua, for allegedly making statements conducive to public mischief, saying there was an unexplained delay of nearly three months in filing the complaint and lodging of the FIR.
The court, in an interim order, said it was of a prima facie view that further proceedings or probe are likely to cause unjustified harassment to the scribe and stayed the investigation till July 23.
Justice Anup J Bhambhani, who passed the order on Wednesday and made available on Thursday evening, said this court is persuaded to think that the filing of the complaint and lodging of the FIR deserve to be considered and deliberated further, before allowing investigation to proceed against Dua.
“Keeping in view the law as laid-down by the Supreme Court..., without forming an opinion on the merits of this matter, this court is persuaded to think that the filing of the complaint and registration of the FIR deserve to be considered and deliberated further, before allowing investigation to proceed against the petitioner.
“Accordingly, further investigation in the matter arising from the subject FIR is stayed, till the next date of hearing,” the judge said in its order. The court also issued notice and sought response of Delhi Police and the complainant, a Delhi BJP leader, on the journalist’s plea seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against him by the Crime Branch.
The FIR was lodged on June 4 on complaint of BJP spokesperson Naveen Kumar who claimed that “Dua, a known India media personality, committed offence of public nuisance, mischief, printing and engraving matters known to be defamatory, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace”.
It said that on March 11, Dua on his YouTube show had spoken about northeast riots that started from February 23 and the contents of the show were like other national and international news, which highlighted the mishandling by the police and Centre.
(With PTI inputs)