Chennai, Oct 31:
Is Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) co-convenor Saurav Das an Indian? A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition has raised this question and sought cancellation of his passport and Aadhaar card if he is found not to be, and the Madras High Court on Friday has ordered notice to the Union Government, directing the Home Ministry to probe his nationality.
Hearing a petition filed by one R Ganesh Kumar, a businessman of Chennai, the First Bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan also ordered notice to Das. The petitioner also prayed for a direction to block X and Instagram handles of Das to prevent him from posting derogatory statements against Supreme Court Judges.
The petitioner, claiming that the actual name of Das was Yogesh Sharma, alleged in his affidavit that the CJP leader had roots in Nepal. He had deliberately concealed the facts and fraudulently obtained an Aadhaar card and passport, besides a voter ID as well.
Describing Das as a ‘jobless person with no genuine work and a self-styled representative of the CJP’, the PIL litigant accused him of ‘spreading hatred among the youth through his social media handles, posting false and unsubstantiated allegations’.
According to the affidavit, one does not know how many passports Das was holding, which required a ‘deeper probe in the interest of the nation’.
To substantiate his claim that Das was critical of the judiciary, the petitioner cited several social media posts and claimed that the CJP leader must ‘most definitely’ be receiving funds from abroad and that an investigation is needed to unearth the sources of his funding. Further, he accused Das of using social media to ‘create chaos, anarchy and hatred against the ruling establishment’.
Alleging that Das has radical communist leanings, glorifying the radical left, the petitioner businessman submitted that his X and Instagram feed is highly abusive of the judiciary. This, along with his call to storm Parliament during the Jantar Mantar protest, according to him, is proof of ‘Yogesh Sharma’ being a communist.