The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed the petitions filed by Swapna Suresh seeking to quash the two FIRs registered in Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad against her for allegedly conspiring to defame Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family members and provoking people to cause riot in the State.
While dismissing the petitions, Justice Ziyad Rahman observed that the FIRs contained necessary ingredients for the offences alleged against her. The challenge raised by the petitioner was premature and the petitioner could not make out a case for interference by the court at this stage.
The court observed that the allegations were that the petitioner had made statements with the intention to cause fear or alarm to the public or to any section of people whereby any person was induced to commit an offence against the State or against public tranquillity. In this case, it was an undisputed fact that consequent to the statements made by the petitioner, large-scale violence and public outrage took place in various parts of the State, and, as of now, 745 cases had been registered in connection with the same. Therefore, interference by the court was not required in respect of the investigation being conducted into the offences at this stage.
The court was of the view that since the statements admittedly made by the petitioner were prima facie defamatory, making such statements would amount to an illegal act.
Swapna in her petition said that she had only shared some of the contents of her statement given under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) before a lower court when she was asked by mediapersons, and under no circumstances, such acts would make out any of the ingredients of the offences alleged against her.
The initiation of the cases against the petitioner was with malicious intention and to deter her from deposing against the Chief Minister, his family members and K.T. Jaleel, MLA, about certain illegal acts committed by them, she said.
