Basant Rath, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, has been restrained from posting any “derogatory” remarks on social sites against six acquaintances of the current director general of police, Dilbag Singh, by a local court.
Rath was recently suspended from his services following his spat with DGP Dilbag Singh. The suspension order comes two weeks after Rath had filed an official complaint against Dilbag Singh, and publicly criticised him on Twitter, setting off a social media storm.
Second additional munsiff Jeewan Kumar Sharma Saturday restrained Rath from “posting material by any means of communication which is defamatory or derogatory against six persons who claimed to be acquainted with the DGP Dilbag Singh.”
The court gave the order on a suit filed by Parveen Kumar Mittal, Virender Dubey, Saurabh Dang, Rahul Bansal, Davinder Verma and Amit Kohli, all prominent businessmen and a medical practitioner.
They had sought an injunction restraining the 2000 batch police officer from posting any defamatory, derogatory, libel or slanderous posts, material on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any other social media platform against them. They also sought a further decree in the nature of mandatory injunction directing Rath to withdraw defamatory posts made by him on various social media platforms.
They contended that Rath has made expressions, representations and gestures against them which on the face of it are opposing the decency and morality, besides being defamatory in its nature. They said they are acquainted with the current director general of police, Dilbag Singh and have family relations with him.
“It appears that Rath has some personal grouse against Dilbag Singh and in this regard, he is maligning the image of not only the Director-General of Police but also the plaintiffs,” they said.
“Rath in his various posts refers to the director general of police as “DILLOO” and has alleged various allegations of land grabbing besides other allegation of connivance and statements which are defamatory and derogatory to the plaintiffs,” they added.
The court has issued a notice to Rath for filing a written statement in the main suit as well as objections in the application for grant of a temporary injunction.
“In the meanwhile defendant (Rath) is directed not to publish any post or material by any means of communication, which is defamatory or derogatory against the plaintiffs which have an effect of injuring the reputation of the plaintiffs in the society till next date of hearing,” the court order stated.
“This order is, however, subject to objections from the other side,” it added. The case has now been listed July 25.
Rath was suspended by the Union home ministry earlier this month and said in order that disciplinary proceeding is being considered in connection with “repeated instances of gross misconduct and misbehaviour”.