CHANDIGARH, Jan 22: Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav in his reply to the Delhi Assembly secretary regarding the FIR registered in connection with a ‘doctored’ video clip of AAP leader Atishi has said that police acted in accordance with the law and the material available on record.
The DGP’s reply came after the Delhi Assembly issued notices over an FIR registered in the matter by the Jalandhar Police.
The notices were issued to the Punjab DGP, special DGP (cybercrime) and Jalandhar police commissioner for “breach of Delhi Assembly’s privileges”.
While the BJP has accused Atishi of using “insensitive words” against the Guru Tegh Bahadur during a discussion in the Delhi Assembly on January 6 to mark 350 years of the martyrdom of the ninth Sikh Guru, Bhai Sati Das, Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Dayala, it has also demanded an apology from the former delhi chief minister for her alleged objectionable language hurting religious sentiments and undermining the dignity of the House.
However, Atishi has refuted the charge, saying a video clip of her shared on social media had been tampered with by the BJP.
In his reply, the Punjab DGP wrote that the FIR was registered following a complaint received from a Jalandhar resident who alleged that on January 7, he noticed certain video clips circulating on social media in which Atishi was allegedly shown to be making derogatory remarks against Sikh Gurus through misleading subtitles.
It was alleged that since the original video of the actual speech, which was later uploaded on the official social media account of Atishi, did not feature any such derogatory remarks, it was clear that the video clips were edited in a manner intended to present a manipulated version of the original speech, hurt religious sentiments and provoke communal tension.
During the course of investigation after the registration of the FIR, one of the widely circulated video clips was downloaded from a publicly available social media URL, in accordance with the prescribed procedure, wrote the DGP.
“The digital data was preserved, a hash value was generated and the requisite certificate under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 was duly obtained. The material so examined was sourced from a secondary source, namely, social media platforms, where the said video clip had been uploaded and shared by multiple users,” read the reply.
The preserved digital material was forwarded to the State Forensic Science Laboratory, SAS Nagar (Mohali), for examination.
“Since the matter was sensitive in nature, the forensic examination was conducted on priority. The report said that the word ‘Guru’ was not uttered by the speaker of the audio extracted from the video file under examination,” it stated.
“From the perusal of the above material, it is pertinent to state that the Jalandhar Commissionerate Police has acted in accordance with law, upon receipt of a written complaint by a local resident, which duly disclosed commission of cognisable offences.
“In terms of the settled law in this regard, it may be appreciated that the jurisdictional Police Officer is duty-bound to register an FIR if the information/allegations furnished before him disclose commission of any cognizable offence,” according to the DGP’s reply.
Since the offences in question were likely to hurt religious sentiments and cause communal disharmony, it was imperative that the police acted swiftly and in accordance with law, immediately upon receipt of the complaint, he said.
The DGP pointed out that Punjab, which shares its border with Pakistan, has had a long and painful history of cross-border terrorism as well as internal disturbances which often have religious undertones.
Thus, such offences, committed in the domain of social media, resulting in rapid and far-reaching viewership, have the tendency to seriously jeopardise the law and order situation in the state, read the reply.
The FIR registered by the Jalandhar Police pertains to acts committed by unknown persons wholly outside the Delhi Assembly and “the genesis of the alleged offences being investigated in pursuance of the said FIR is the act of clipping/ cropping of a video-clip and subjecting it to alleged digital tampering by imposition of offending sub-titles thereon”, it said.
Insofar as the question of legislative privilege is concerned, the privilege afforded by the Constitution laws is limited to liability in respect of publication “by or under the authority of a house of… a legislature”.
In the present case, the clips in respect of which the FIR have been registered have obviously not been published by or under the authority of the house, it said.
“Further, the privilege, if any, extends only to protect the member of the House who has spoken on the floor of the House. In this case, that is Atishi, the Hon’ble Leader of the Opposition. However, no FIR has been registered against her at all for her speech inside the House but against unknown miscreants who have sought to manipulate and misuse her speech outside the House,” it said.
The FIR intends to investigate whether any part of the said speech, as originally made, constitutes an offence. (PTI)
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