Court discharges Sisodia, Vishwas, Bhushan in 2012 case related to protest over coal block issue

A Delhi court on Tuesday discharged Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas and their former party colleague Prashant Bhushan in a 2012 case of allegedly provoking protesters during a demonstration here on the coal block allocation issue.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted the relief to the accused who had staged the protest at the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi's 10-Janpath residence, Sisodia's lawyer Mohd Irshad said.

In its order, the court noted that the protest was peaceful and the police lacked evidence to prosecute the accused in the case.

The police had charged Bhushan, Sisodia and Vishwas with provoking people during the protest.

"Bhushan, Sisodia and Vishwas provoked their supporters and marched towards 10-Janpath. Despite warnings and use of water cannons, the crowd became more agitated and marched forward. Seven teargas shells were lobbed and as it did not help, mild force was used to contain them," the FIR had said.

The police had alleged that some of the protesters used the flag sticks to beat policemen besides damaging a DTC bus and deflating its tyre.

This was one of the five cases of rioting registered against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Bhushan, Sisodia, Vishas, Gopal Rai and several unnamed people after their protest on the coal block allocation issue.