Sonipat court asks Kejriwal to appear on 17 Feb over 'poison in Yamuna' remark

A court in Haryana's Sonipat on Wednesday issued notice to AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) supremo Arvind Kejriwal over his claim that the BJP-ruled state was mixing "poison in the Yamuna" river, and asked him to appear before it on 17 February.

The court of chief judicial magistrate Neha Goyal issued the notice to the former Delhi chief minister on a complaint filed by an executive engineer of the Rai Water Services Division, Sonipat.

"He is directed to appear in-person before this court on the next date of hearing, if he has to say anything in the matter. If he does not appear before this court on next date of hearing, it is deemed that he has nothing to say in the matter and further proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with law," the court said.

Earlier in the day, Haryana's revenue and disaster management minister Vipul Goel said the state government would file a case against Kejriwal over his remark.

"Kejriwal has made an irresponsible statement spreading panic among the people of Delhi and Haryana. The Haryana government is going to get a case registered against him before CJM Court in Sonipat under the Disaster Management Act," Goel told reporters.

The complaint was registered under Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) section 223, section 54 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and sections 353 and 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Under the provisions laid down under section 223 of BNSS, an opportunity to be heard is to be given to the accused before taking cognisance of offence by the magistrate.

Kejriwal had alleged on Monday that the "BJP people in Haryana are mixing poison in the water and sending it to Delhi" so that they can blame the AAP if people die, and derive political benefit. "Can anything be more disgusting than this? The poison that is being mixed in the water cannot even be cleaned in water treatment plants. For the safety of the people of Delhi, the water supply has to be stopped in many areas," Kejriwal had said.

Top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Haryana ministers criticised Kejriwal for his remarks, which came in the midst of the ongoing election season in Delhi. Haryana revenue minister Goel accused Kejriwal of speaking "big lies".

"What kind of water we give them (to Delhi), all our officers have checked the water being supplied. Kejriwal has done cheap politics by making such allegations on Haryana, prompting the state government to take legal action," Goel said.

He accused Kejriwal of spreading fear not only among the people of Delhi but also the people of Haryana with his "false claims". He also accused the AAP dispensation in Delhi of completely failing to clean the Yamuna river.

Kejriwal is making baseless allegations against Haryana "just to save his political image before the (Delhi) elections", Goel said. He said the people of Haryana consider the Yamuna sacred, and spreading false propaganda is both an insult to Haryana and an attempt to mislead the people of Delhi, and claimed that Kejriwal has an old habit of covering up his failures by making false statements.

After Kejriwal made the allegations, the AAP doubled down on them. On Monday, it accused the BJP government in Haryana of intentionally draining industrial waste into the Yamuna.

Delhi chief minister Atishi had also alleged that the BJP is "deliberately disrupting" Delhi's water supply as a "historic loss" awaits the saffron party in the 5 February assembly polls in the national capital.

Amid the escalating row, PM Modi and Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi both lashed out at the former Delhi chief minister, saying he had failed to fulfil his promise to clean the river in the last 10 years.

Later in the day, Kejriwal responded to the Election Commission (EC) notice over his claim that the Haryana government was "mixing poison" in Yamuna and said raw water received from the state recently has been "highly contaminated and extremely poisonous" for human health. In his 14-page reply, he said the "alleged statements" attributed to him were made as his public duty to highlight the "severe toxicity and contamination" of raw water received from the BJP-ruled state.

Addressing a rally in Delhi, Gandhi said Kejriwal reneged on his promise of bathing in and drinking Yamuna water, and challenged him to drink from the river. "He (Kejriwal) ran a corrupt government. Modi ji lies in his speeches and just like him, Kejriwal does the same. Five years ago, he (Kejriwal) had stated that he would take a bath in the Yamuna and drink its water. Five years have gone by and he did not do so. You have to drink dirty water but Kejriwal lives in sheesh mahal (glass palace) which is worth crores and he lies to you," the former Congress chief said.