NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) Tuesday served notice to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, asking him to prove his “poison in Yamuna” claim to avoid legal troubles that could lead to three years of jail term.
The poll body has asked Delhi’s former CM to validate his claim by 8 pm on Wednesday.
The ECI also mentioned various judicial pronouncements and legal provisions that can lead to up to three years imprisonment for mischievous statements against national integration and public harmony.
The national poll body said that Kejriwal’s allegation has serious ramifications such as creating enmity between regional groups, the residents of neighbouring states, threat of law and order situation due to actual or perceived shortage or non-availability of water at this time of the year.
The ECI’s letter to Kejriwal cites Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Section 196 (promoting enmity on grounds of place of birth, residence), Section 197 ( imputations prejudicial to national integration), Section 353 (public mischief) — all carrying a maximum jail term of three years, besides Section 123(4) of Representation of People Act.
The election commission’s has cracked whip on the AAP supremo hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders met the ECI officials to seek action against Kejriwal, who claimed that the BJP leaders had “mixed poison” in the Yamuna flowing to the national capital from Haryana.
Backing its demand to bar Kejriwal from campaigning in the Delhi assembly elections, the BJP said that if the former chief minister was not stopped, it could lead to “potential public unrest”.
The BJP delegation of Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Bhupendra Yadav, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva and Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini visited the ECI and urged the poll body to direct Kejriwal to issue a “public retraction of his false statement and apologise for creating public panic”.
AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday made a big claim ahead of the Delhi elections, accusing BJP of mixing poison in the water that is coming to Delhi from Haryana.
Even earlier today he defended his “poison in Yamuna” remark and said that he was not afraid of Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini’s threat of taking legal action against him.