Officials said BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra did not appear in person or online before Raipur police in Chhattisgarh on Sunday as directed in connection with a FIR filed against him and senior colleague Raman Singh over an alleged fake toolkit.
Mr. Patra, who was summoned to appear at 4 p.m. on Sunday before officers from the Civil Lines police station, where the FIR was filed, declined due to personal reasons, they said.
In the alleged toolkit row, a FIR was filed in Raipur on May 19 against Raman Singh, the BJP vice president and former chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Mr. Patra, and others on charges of spreading fake news and promoting enmity between classes.
Following a complaint filed by Akash Sharma, president of the National Students’ Union of India’s (NSUI) Chhattisgarh unit, the case was filed at the Civil Lines police station. Sharma claimed that Singh, Patra, and others circulated a fake “toolkit” on Congress letterhead.
“Patra did not appear before police investigators. As per his advocate, Patra was busy in some personal engagements and sought one week to appear before police,” said Civil Lines station house officer R K Mishra.
According to the Civil Lines police official, Singh has received a similar notice requiring him to be present at his residence at 12:30 p.m. on Monday for the recording of his statement in connection with the case.
“In the notice, Civil Lines police said that Patra is a suspect in the case of the alleged toolkit. Therefore, it has been directed to him to appear either in person or through a video conference on May 23 at 4 pm for the investigation of the case. Not complying with the notice is going to attract legal action,” the officer had said.
Mr. Patra’s tweet about the alleged toolkit prepared by Congress to target the Narendra Modi government was recently labelled as “manipulated media” by Twitter.
The Congress had on Thursday written to Twitter asking it to permanently suspend the accounts of BJP president J.P. Nadda, Union minister Smriti Irani, Mr. Patra and other BJP leaders for allegedly “spreading misinformation and unrest in the society”.
The Congress had said the toolkit documents flagged by the BJP are “fake” and has filed a police complaint against its leaders.
The BJP has been attacking Congress over some controversial content of the so-called ‘Covid’ toolkit.
