It’s raining trouble for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab. After its Mehrauli MlA from Delhi was booked and summoned in Malerkotla Quran sacrilege case, a case was registered against another senior leader Ashish Khetan on Wednesday for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments.
The case was registered a day after AAP tendered an apology for equating the party’s Youth Manifesto for Punjab polls with religious books.
A case, under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) was registered against Khetan at Civil lines police station in Amritsar on late Tuesday night.
The case was registered on the complaint filed by All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) president Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad on Tuesday, said Commissioner of Police (Amritsar) Amar Singh Chahal on Wednesday.
According to the complaint, the AAP leader had hurt the religious sentiments of people by equating the Youth Manifesto with Guru Granth Sahib and other religious books while launching it in Amritsar, said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (City II) Gaurav Garg.
The complainant alleged that by using the image of Golden Temple on the cover page of the manifesto with the party’s election symbol of ‘broom’ superimposed on it, sentiments of people had been hurt.
Police said they were investigating the matter.
After facing criticism, AAP leaders on Tuesday tendered an apology, saying that it did not intend to “undermine any section of the society”.
Khetan in Khanna had said that the party never “intended to undermine any section, community or any individual”.
Earlier, Khetan had said that the manifesto was “the Bible, Gita and Guru Granth Sahib” for him.
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had also attacked AAP, saying that its act amounted to “desecration” of the holy book and sought an apology from AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal.