Facing the prospect of being prosecuted for unlawfully invalidating eight AAP votes to rig the elections in favour of BJP candidate in Chandigarh mayor election, the polling officer Anil Masih on Friday tendered "unconditional apology" to the Supreme Court and "surrendered to the court's magnanimity" while requesting for reprieve.
For Masih, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said the person has tendered unconditional apology and is surrendering to the court's magnanimity to seek reprieve from prosecution. But, this was
stoutly opposed by AAP's senior advocate A M Singhvi, who said it is easy to apologise after defiantly breaching the SC order and even justifying the action polluting free and fair elections.
The bench appeared to be in a mood to forgive, but with Singhvi insisting, it simply adjourned the hearing to next week. The SC on February 20 had declared AAP's Kuldeep Kumar elected as mayor of Chandigarh and struck down the election of BJP's Manoj Sonkar. For the unlawful invalidation of eight AAP votes, the SC has initiated prosecution proceedings against Masih. Masih also said he would withdraw the earlier affidavit which stated that he was reeling under depression and anxiety, and wherein he denied allegations of tampering with ballots.
The apex court had earlier issued a notice to Masih to show cause as to why proceedings should not be initiated against him under section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for allegedly making false statement before the court.
(Courtesy:- The Times of India, 6 April 2024)
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