Jodhpur, Jul 10 The Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur on Friday directed officials not to take any coercive action against Rashtriya Loktantrik Party leader Hanuman Beniwal in connection with an FIR registered against him at Padu Kalan police station in Nagaur district on May 28.
Beniwal is a Lok Sabha MP from Nagaur in Rajasthan and president of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP).
Justice Farjand Ali passed the interim order while hearing Beniwal's criminal miscellaneous petition challenging the FIR registered under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and Section 8B of the National Highways Act, 1956.
The court has listed the matter after three weeks.
The complaint was lodged against Beniwal and 13 others in relation to a political assembly and a subsequent procession against a sand mafia in Nagaur's Riyan Badi on January 6 in which Beniwal was alleged to have participated along with several others.
In its order, the court said the case required examination under its inherent powers under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023.
It said the issue requiring scrutiny included whether the allegations, even if accepted at face value, made out the essential ingredients of the offences; whether there were foundational facts to fix individual criminal liability on Beniwal; and whether continuation of the proceedings would amount to an abuse of the process of law.
The court deferred the matter for three weeks for reply after Additional Advocate General Deepak Choudhary sought time to file a reply from the respondents.
Pending the next hearing, the court ordered that no coercive measures be taken against Beniwal in connection with the FIR.
