Two AAP men get bail

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 2

The Court of JMIC Sukhwinder Singh today granted bail to state joint secretary of the AAP IT wing and Patiala media in-charge Sandeep Bandhu and another volunteer Sanjeev Kumar. They were arrested by the police under Section 65 of the IT Act for spreading misinformation against Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi by creating a fake Facebook account.

The court ordered that two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each be furnished for the two, against whom a case was registered yesterday at the Civil Lines police station on a complaint filed by Gandhi’s computer operator Atul Bahadur. He claimed that a fake account had been made in his name (Atul’s) on October 6, which was being used to defame the Patiala MP.

While appending some of the posts from the ‘fake’ account that read ‘Gandhi had embezzled MPLAD funds and he had documents to prove the same’, Atul claimed that some abuses were also hurled against the MP. He also alleged that the accused had even circulated these posts through their WhatsApp numbers.

Atul on his part gave in writing to the MP, who took up the matter with the district police chief and an inquiry was marked.

SSP Gurmeet Chauhan, while confirming the development, said a case had been registered at the Civil Lines police station after preliminary investigation. He said both were produced before a local court and were sent to 14-day judicial custody.

Local lawyer Jagmohan Saini, who moved a bail application in the court, said the case was political motivated and was registered to damage AAP volunteers.

He said none of the AAP volunteers had appeared in support of the two accused and the bails were filed by local lawyers.

Meanwhile, Patiala (Urban) candidate Balbir Singh said attempts were on to resolve the matter. “I have already spoken to Dr Gandhi in this regard and he has raised certain issues. I will be meeting him personally when he returns from Delhi to solve the issue at our own end,” he said.