JUDGMENT :

ABHAY S. OKA, J.

FACTUAL ASPECTS

1. The respondent filed a private complaint against the petitioner in the Court of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Ahmedabad, alleging commission of the offence under Section 499, which is punishable under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (for short ‘the IPC’). The learned Magistrate issued a summons on 28th August 2023. The present petition seeks a transfer of the complaint from the Court in Ahmedabad to a Court in Delhi.

2. The complaint is based on the utterances of the petitioner, which formed part of a public statement made by the petitioner on 22nd March 2023, which was reported by both electronic and print media. It is alleged in the complaint that the petitioner made a public statement to the following effect:

“Jo bhi do thug hai na, jo thug hai, thug ko anumati jo hai, aaj ke desh ke condition me dekha jaye then only Gujarati hi thug ho sakte hai, aur uske thug ko maaf kiya jayega. LIC ko paisa do, bank ko paisa do, fir wo log le ke bhag jayenge, to kaun jimmedaar hoga?”

The respondent relied upon a pen drive of a video of the petitioner's statement appearing on YouTube. The case made out by the respondent is that b