Court dismisses complaint against CM: Kejriwal’s ‘thulla’ remark aimed at ‘inefficient cops’

The order came on a defamation complaint filed against Kejriwal by constable Harvinder of Govindpuri police station.

Dismissing a criminal defamation complaint against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over his “thulla” remark, a Delhi court has stated that the term he used was made with reference to Delhi Police officers who are “inefficient”, have “low productivity rate” and take money from street vendors.

“It has not been said by the respondent (Kejriwal) that all Delhi Police personnel are ‘thulla’. On the other hand, the use of word ‘koi’ (someone) before ‘thulla’ clearly shows that the said imputation is neither directed towards complainant individually nor towards whole of Delhi Police as a class but towards an indeterminate and unidentifiable class of police officers of Delhi Police who are having lower productivity rate than other reasonable Delhi police officers,” said Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg.

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“To be more precise, the said word appears to have been made with reference to those police officers who lack in efficiency and indulge in taking money from rehdi patri walas… It is neither directed to the complainant individually nor to entire Delhi Police as a class but to an indeterminate and unidentifiable class of inefficient and corrupt police officials… Thus, there are no sufficient grounds to proceed further against the respondent (Kejriwal) and to summon him under section 500 of the IPC,” the court added.

The order came on a defamation complaint filed against Kejriwal by constable Harvinder of Govindpuri police station, who said he was insulted by the CM’s “thulla” remark in a TV interview.