A Delhi court today asked the complainants to file relevant case laws in support of their plea seeking prosecution of industrialist and Rajya Sabha MP Rahul Bajaj for allegedly posting a disfigured map of India on the website of his insurance partner, Allianz.
"You have sought prosecution under section 124A (sedition) of the IPC. File the relevant case laws, which say that the alleged offence is adequately covered under the penal provision," Metropolitan Magistrate Geetanjali Goel said.
The court then fixed the matter for hearing on September 21.
Earlier, the court had reserved its order on the complaint which seeks to summon and prosecute Bajaj because the website of his insurance joint venture company, Germany's Allianz, allegedly carried a India map with Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh in Pakistan and China respectively.
One of the complainants, Sanjay Sachdeva, told the court the "disfigured" map was in contravention of India's territory as defined in the Constitution.
Bajaj has an insurance business JV with Allianz.
Citing a Supreme Court judgement to buttress his case, Sachdeva had said that Bajaj cannot be absolved of the offence despite the police report that the map disfigurement was the act of his German insurance partner, Allianz.
The court, earlier, recorded statements of Sachdeva and other complainants Harsh Malhotra and Sonu Rangi to ascertain the veracity of the allegations.
Sachdeva, a member of the Delhi Pradesh National Panthers Party, has sought prosecution of Bajaj for sedition charges on the grounds that the disfigurement of India map was an "anti-national" act.
Responding to the allegations, Bajaj had earlier told PTI that the portal, which depicted the map with the reported discrepancy, belonged to his company's insurance venture partner, Allianz.
The complaint, on the other hand, alleged that "in the website (allianz.Com)... He intentionally... Depicted the state of Jammu and Kashmir as a part of Pakistan and Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China."
