Congress leader, 19 others discharged in rioting case

Vadodara: A judicial magistrate’s court on Wednesday discharged senior Congress party leader and former MP, Madhusudan Mistry, and 19 others in a case of rioting and public property damage lodged against them in the run-up to 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Mistry and 19 others including Vadodara Municipal Corporation’s opposition leader Chandrakant Shrivastava alias Chandrakant Bhattu were booked after Mistry had allegedly tried to paste his own posters on those of Narendra Modi, who was BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister, on Lakdipul Road in Dandiya Bazaar.
“I told the court that the entire process, from registering the FIR to conducting the investigation and filing the chargesheet, was totally out of procedure. Police had no right to register the case or probe it,” said senior lawyer Pravin Thakkar, one of the advocates representing the Mistry and others.
“Police should have given a complaint to a magistrate who would have decided on it,” said Thakkar.
“There were several procedural lapses on part of police. First, the officer who was the complainant was also the investigating officer. Secondly, the chargesheet itself mentions that the main accused is a Rajya Sabha member then how could they charge him without taking permission of the chairman of Rajya Sabha?,” said another lawyer Kamal Pandya.
It was also argued that the kiosk which was allegedly damaged was not a public property but owned by a private company.
The court of additional chief judicial magistrate K S Makhija upheld the discharge plea and the arguments submitted by all 20 accused while the trial was at the framing of charges stage.
Mistry was parachuted by the Congress as the BJP had picked Modi to contest from Vadodara seat. Before Mistry, then city Congress president Narendra Rawat was chosen to contest for Vadodara seat.
Mistry had tried to climb on a pole on a road divider for pasting his poster over Modi’s poster, but he was prevented by the police as neither he nor any Congress leader had taken any permission for the program. He and other Congress workers were arrested and later released on bail.