The Delhi Police on Thursday told a local court that the mere uttering of derogatory words without any “overt act” against the prime minister does not constitute sedition, PTI reported. The police filed the response in connection with a sedition case against Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Lawyer Ajay Agrawal had filed a complaint against Aiyar for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “neech aadmi” (lowly person) in December 2017, ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections. He had also filed another complaint against the Congress leader for hosting Pakistani officials at his residence.

The petitioner claimed that derogatory words were also used against Modi at Aiyar’s meeting with Pakistani officials. He said that the Ministry of External Affairs and the Home Ministry were not informed about the meeting. Agrawal sought an investigation by the National Investigation Agency and the Delhi Police in the case.

In May this year, Aiyar claimed that his remark about Modi would prove prophetic as Modi would lose the Lok Sabha elections. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 of the 542 seats in the polls.

The police in an Action Taken Reports on Thursday sought dismissal of the two complaints. “As far as the allegations of conspiring against India by these persons matter, the complainant is only assuming this and no such evidence has come on record to show conspiracy till now,” the police said in its submission. The police also contended that even if Aiyar broke protocol by meeting Pakistani officials, it does not attract any penal provision under the Indian Penal Code.

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