Delhi court questions police’s ‘lackadaisical’ probe into Kapil Mishra’s social media posts in 2020

A Delhi court on Monday noted that the police had shown a “lackadaisical approach” in investigating a case against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kapil Mishra for allegedly making inflammatory statements ahead of the 2020 Assembly election, The Indian Express reported.

A first information report was filed against Mishra, who is now Delhi’s law minister, in January 2020 for allegedly promoting enmity between groups through social media posts under the Representation of the People Act section 125.

In one of the social media posts, Mishra had said that there would be an “India versus Pakistan contest” in Delhi on February 8, 2020, the day when the Assembly elections were held. He also alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress had created a “mini-Pakistan” at Shaheen Bagh, a key site of protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

In another social media post, Mishra alleged that Pakistan had “made its entry” at Shaheen Bagh, and that many “mini-Pakistans” had been formed in Delhi.

During a previous hearing of the case, the deputy commissioner of police (northwest) told the court that a request had been sent to microblogging site X for data related to Mishra’s posts, the Hindustan Times reported. The official had said that a response from X was awaited.

However, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia said on Monday that...

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