Sukhpal Khaira booked for sexual harassment over posts on AAP leader; cops issue notice to X

The Punjab Police has registered an FIR against Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira on charges of sexually harassing and insulting modesty of a woman and criminal intimidation following a complaint by an Aam Aadmi Party leader who had flagged his posts against her on social media platform X. Khaira termed the FIR and attempt to muzzle his voice.

The FIR has been registered under Sections 75(1)(iv), 75(3), 79, 351 and 61 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, it has been learnt.

Section 75(1)(iv) of BNS deals with sexual harassment (sexually coloured remarks). Section 75(3) deals with punishment for Section 75(1)(iv) and prescribes imprisonment for up to one year, a fine, or both. Section 79 of BNS deals with insulting the modesty of a woman through any word, gesture, or act and covers verbal abuse, vulgar gestures, or digital messages meant to degrade a woman’s modesty.

Section 351 for the BNS deals with the offence of threatening a person with injury, reputation, or property to cause alarm. Section 61 deals with criminal conspiracy while Section 67 of the IT Act punishes any person who publishes or transmits obscene material in electronic form.

On September 27, the office of the Additional Director General of Police, State Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Mohali, in an e-mail to X, directed the platform to take down posts by Khaira and two other accounts within three hours, stating that a criminal case has been registered.

It said that the posts contained “derogatory, objectionable and unsubstantiated remarks” targeting the woman’s character, conduct and reputation. The notice said the allegations were of a personal nature and were made without “credible, verifiable or supporting material”, and could adversely affect her dignity, reputation and privacy.

It listed six URLs, including from from Khaira’s account, and asked X to disable access and preserve the records. It also warned of consequences for the platform’s safe-harbour protection if the content remained accessible after “actual knowledge”.
The posts relate to a political row that began around September 25 after Khaira alleged that AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia was occupying a government house in Sector 39, Chandigarh, allotted to a Punjab minister and made certain comments about the woman AAP leader who denied the allegation and accused the Congress leader of attacking her character. Khaira subsequently objected to remarks made by her, which he described as abusive.

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The Punjab State Commission for Women chairperson too had criticised Khaira’s remarks.

Khaira, meanwhile, termed the FIR an attempt by the AAP government to “muzzle” his voice. He questioned why the police notice to X did not mention the FIR number or the police station where the case was registered. In a post on X, Khaira said, “When the AAP government can’t fight me logically, it resorts to false cases and the police for support”. He alleged that FIRs had been “secretly” registered over his two videos concerning the woman leader and claimed that while X had not removed the posts, Facebook had deleted the videos.