Samajwadi Party was directed by the Delhi High Court on Friday to remove rape claims made against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT Cell director Amit Malviya on X (formerly Twitter).
In their representation of Malviya before Judge Vikas Mahajan, Senior Advocates Arvind Nayar and Nalin Kohli said that Malviya is the head of a prominent political party’s IT Cell and that he has struggled to establish his image.
“These kinds of statements can’t be made for anybody… It is causing damage every day. Lakhs of people have seen this,” Nayar said.
He insisted on a temporary order to remove the tweet and stated that dasti, or manual court notice delivery, may also be used to issue the order.
Justice Mahajan concurred and stated that the dasti will issue the order.
Malviya filed a defamation lawsuit against the Samajwadi Party (SP). Advocates Annie Mittal and Surjendu Sankar Das filed the lawsuit.
The issue stems from claims of rape in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, against a representative of the Samajwadi Party. The suspects in this case are reportedly SP leader Moeed Khan and a different individual by the name of Raju Khan.
Chief IPS Akhilesh Yadav tweeted on August 3 that while a DNA test should be conducted and anyone found guilty should face consequences, the officials involved should also face consequences if the accusations turn out to be untrue.
On the same day, Malviya queried Yadav about his tweet, asking what he hoped a DNA test would demonstrate.
“But nothing other than this kind of disgusting politics can be expected from Akhilesh Yadav… In the coming days, wherever SP wins, there will be many news of such misdeeds against the daughters and daughters-in-law of backward society in every village. SP is less of a political party and more of a gang of criminals,” Malviya said.
In response to Malviya, the SP Media Cell Twitter account posted an image of BJP officials with rape suspects on X.
These featured pictures of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with Swami Chinmayanand (Chinmayanand has been accused of rape) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Asaram Bapu (Asaram has been found guilty of rape).
The tweet continued by claiming there had been rumors that Malviya had invited ladies to his hotel where he would rape them and that he had had “illicit” relationships with males.
