RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, May 5: The Jharkhand High Court today deferred hearing in a petition filed by ‘journalist’ Umesh Prasad for quashing an FIR filed against him at Argora police station in 2018.
A resident of Jharkhand capital Amritesh Singh Chouhan had filed the petition after Prasad attempted to blackmail the then Uttarakhand chief minister T.S.Rawat on the basis of a telephonic talk recording between him and Chouhan.
The FIR had been registered on November 4, 2018 under various sections of IPC including 124 A, 387, 389, 506 and 509.
Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi hearing the petition deferred the hearing till June 22 after the petitioner sought time saying Kapil Sibal who is expected to appear in the case is not available today.
‘Journalist’ Prasad while filing the petition has made Rawat a respondent along with Chouhan and others. Following the petition, the high court on March 22 this year issued notices to Rawat along with other parties.
Rawat was earlier the incharge of the Jharkhand BJP.
Thus before the court deferred the hearing, Pandey Neeraj Rai, appearing on behalf of Rawat urged the court to delete the name of Rawat from the list of respondents and also urged the court to recall the notice.
Rai submitted that his client is neither an informant in the case nor an accused and thus has nothing to take in this matter.
