Court reserves order on Bajaj map row

A Delhi court today reserved its order on a complaint seeking prosecution of industrialist and Rajya Sabha MP Rahul Bajaj for allegedly posting a disfigured map of India on the website of his insurance joint venture partner, Allianz.

"Put up the matter for orders on September 8, next date of hearing," Metropolitan Magistrate Geetanjali Goel said.

The court had earlier asked the complainants to incorporate the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2009, as the alleged offence was committed on a website.

The complaint seeks to summon and prosecute Bajaj because his German insurance partner's website allegedly carried an India map in which Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh were shown as parts of Pakistan and China, respectively.

One of the complainants, Sanjay Sachdeva, earlier told the court that 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 said Bajaj cannot be absolved of the offence despite a police report that said the map disfigurement was the act of his German insurance partner, Allianz.

Earlier, the court recorded the statements of Sachdeva and two other complainants, Harsh Malhotra and Sonu Rangi, to ascertain whether a case could be made out against Bajaj or not.

Sachdeva, a member of the Delhi Pradesh unit of the National Panthers Party, had sought the prosecution of Bajaj under Section 124A (sedition) of the IPC on the ground 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 complainants, 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."