Complaint filed against Rahul Bajaj for sedition

A complaint was today filed in a Delhi court against industrialist and Rajya Sabha MP Rahul Bajaj over his group's partner company Allianz portraying Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as part of Pakistan and China, respectively, on its website.

The complaint by Sanjay Sachdeva, member of Delhi Pradesh National Panthers Party, and others before Metropolitan Magistrate Geetanjali Goel sought prosecution of Bajaj under charges of sedition.

It was the portal of Allianz, Bajaj's insurance venture partner, that had carried the map with the discrepancy.

When contacted, Bajaj said: "I have nothing to do with the case as it was Allianz which had put the map on its website. They have, in fact, corrected the discrepancy as soon as it was pointed out about a month back."

The magistrate posted the matter to September 24 for further hearing and filing of amended memo of parties.

Bajaj said his group will reply accordingly.

"In the website (allianz.com)... He intentionally... depicted the state of Jammu and Kashmir as part of Pakistan and Arunachal Pradesh as part of China," the complaint said.

Seeking prosecution of Bajaj, chairman of Bajaj Auto and Bajaj group of companies, under section 124 A (sedition) of the IPC, which prescribes life imprisonment as maximum punishment, the complaint claimed that this was an "anti- national" act.

The court, which was to hear pre-summoning arguments in the case, asked the complainant to file a memo of parties, giving names and addresses of his co-complainants in the case.

Sachdeva prayed that either the court summon Bajaj and try him for sedition or direct the Station House Officer of Parliament Street police station for registering and probing the case against Bajaj.

It was alleged that police failed to take cognizance of the complaint, lodged on August 10.