Relief for Joshi as HC dismisses plea
Tuesday, 05/05/2015
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CHANDIGARH: A petition against Punjab cabinet minister Anil Joshi in the dual-vote case of Amritsar has been dismissed in the Punjab and Haryana high court with a cost of `50,000 imposed on the petitioner.
Joshi’s counsel Satya Pal Jain said that the bench comprising justices Hemant Gupta and Lisa Gill had observed on Monday that the petition by Amritsar lawyer Vaneet Mahajan to accuse Joshi and his family of having dual vote was sheer misuse of law and the allegations were not proved. “Truth has prevailed,” Joshi told HT over telephone after the order, adding: “I had full confidence in judiciary. The order vindicates our stand that we did nothing wrong and I was a victim of political vendetta.”
Based on the electoral rolls record of 2006 to 2013, Mahajan had tried to show that Joshi and his wife, Monica, were listed as voters from both Amritsar North and Amritsar East assembly constituencies, while his mother was registered as voter also in Tarn Taran, the ancestral town of the Joshi family.
In a complaint to the Election Commission of India, the lawyer had demanded action against the minister and his brother, Rajesh Joshi, saying they had made false declarations at the time of filing nomination papers. Mahajan had moved court seeking that Joshi be disqualified as MLA on the grounds that he had not been a voter in Punjab at the time of the elections.
PETITIONER ACCUSED JOSHI OF ASSAULT
Mahajan had lodged an FIR against Joshi in Amritsar, saying that the minister was behind a murderous assault on him. Mahajan’s lawyer friend Sandeep Gorsi had accused Joshi of plotting multiple attacks on them for their exposing the “fraud and forgery” in the dual-vote case.
