Modi's 'lotus' selfie: SC dismisses AAP activist's plea on poll code violation

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed a plea of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of breaching the poll code during 2014 Lok Sabha elections by clicking a selfie with BJP symbol 'lotus' on the social media soon after casting his vote.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi dismissed the petition of AAP worker Nishant Deshdipak Varma whose plea was also dismissed by the trial court and the High Court.

Varma, a resident of Ahmedabad, had challenged the Gujarat High Court order and said in his plea that no investigation was made by the BJP government in Gujarat into the FIRs lodged against the then Chief Minister in the matter on the direction of the Election Commission.

He had contended that the High Court was "erroneous" and the Gujarat Police had acted in a mala fide manner to protect Modi by filing a closure report in the case.

"Investigation agency involved in the present case has acted in a mala fide manner in order to protect the Respondent (Modi) from lawful prosecution for having committed various offences under the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 and the Indian Penal Code," he had said in his plea.

Varma had earlier filed a complaint before a magisterial court alleging violation of the model code by Modi, but the police had filed a closure report saying no offence was committed by him.

The magistrate, while accepting the closure report in August 2014, had dropped the proceedings against Modi who had by then become the Prime Minister. This order was later upheld by the high court.

Seeking action against Modi, he had said, "Before accepting the closure report, the metropolitan magistrate did not give any opportunity to the petitioner or the Election Commission of India to assail the report."

The Election Commission had on April 30, 2014 directed that FIRs be registered against Modi for violation of model code of conduct.