Court issues arrest warrant against BJP leader for abusing Mehbooba Mufti

A Jammu and Kashmir court has issued an arrest warrant against BJP leader Rajinder Singh for using derogatory language against Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti during a rally in Kathua.

The warrant was issued by Kathua's Chief Judicial Magistrate A S Langeh yesterday after the SHO of the Hiranagar police station filed an application in the court accusing Rajinder of evading arrest and changing his hideouts in Jammu and Udhampur in J-K and Pathankot in Punjab, a police spokesperson said.

The judge said there were sufficient grounds in the application seeking an arrest warrant against Rajinder and authorised the police to arrest him wherever found.

A case under section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Ranbir Penal Code, applicable only in the state of J-K and Section 66A of the Information Technology Act has been registered against the absconding BJP leader.

Rajinder, the brother of former Jammu and Kashmir Forest Minister Lal Singh, was booked by police on May 21 after a 26-second video clip, showing him perched atop a vehicle and abusing Mehbooba as his supporters cheer him, was circulated widely.

Rajinder had taken part in the massive 'Dogri Swabhiman' rally on May 20 -- from Lakhanpur to Hiranagar in Kathua district-- to press for a CBI probe into the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl.

Lal Singh had resigned from the Council of Ministers for attending the rally in support of the suspected rapists of the girl, from a minority nomadic tribe, organised by the Hindu Ekta Manch.