NEW DELHI: In a big relief to former CSDS director and renowned political analyst Sanjay Kumar, the Supreme Court on Monday, stayed the FIRs registered against him in connection with his tweets claiming significant voter number discrepancies in the 2024 Maharashtra elections.
A two-judge bench of the apex court headed by CJI BR Gavai and Justice NV Anjaria, stayed the FIRs after hearing the plea of Kumar.
The accused Kumar, moved the apex court seeking to quash the FIRs, claiming that the allegations are baseless. He contended before the SC that the FIRS are an "abuse of the State power." Kumar clarified that the tweets were later deleted by him citing data errors.
"A tweet giving wrong information cannot form the basis of an FIR for offences such as Forgery. The allegations made therein are baseless, and the criminal sections invoked are demonstrably inapplicable to the facts and circumstances of the case," he argued.
Claiming innocence in the case, Kumar submitted that there was no criminal intent, as the post was a bona fide and inadvertent error, for which he issued a public apology clarification.
The court taking Kumar’s submissions into record that he had already apologised in the case, the SC stayed the FIRs and issued notice on his appeal.
Kumar's lawyer argued before the top court that he has an impeccable integrity of 30 years of conscientious service to the nation and to the world. "He is highly respected. It was a mistake. He apologized," he said and sought staying of the FIRs.
The laywer even surprisingly submitted that "I deleted, I apologized publicly, after that, an FIR."
According to the prosecution, on August 17, Kumar posted on his X handle about the increase and decrease in the number of voters in specific constituencies. However, after realising that the post was based on an erroneous analysis, he posted on August 19 expressing apology for his post and clarifying that his earlier post was a mistake.
Following that, the officers reporting to the Election Commission of India registered two FIRs, one at Nashik and another at Nagpur, under various sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023.
