Rashtrapati Bhawan has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police in connection with alleged derogatory tweets by former IPL boss Lalit Modi, being probed by the Enforcement Directorate for alleged money laundering, against President Pranab Mukherjee’s secretary Omita Paul. The complaint was handed over to the Delhi Police, which is yet to take a call on whether to register a case or seek necessary instructions from a court for blocking the Twitter page, official sources said.
The formal complaint was sent by Rashtrapati Bhavan along with tweets posted by Lalit Modi last month. A final call on the complaint will be taken by Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi, who may seek legal opinion on whether the tweets amounted to criminal defamation. Since the Supreme Court had recently scrapped Section 66A of the Information Technology Act relating to criminal defamation, the police would have to look at provisions that could be applied against Modi in this case.
When contacted, Bassi said the complaint has been received and is being examined. Modi had alleged that President Pranab Mukherjee, during his stint as Finance Minister, had pushed Enforcement Directorate to act against him after he had raised questions about the shareholding pattern in IPL’s Kochi franchise leading to resignation of Shashi Tharoor from the Union council of ministers.