The complainant has withdrawn all complaints against the 15-year-old after apology videos surfaced. The climbdown ends a sensitive political row and shifts focus to how minors are drawn into protests.
The complainant in the case involving a 15-year-old girl accused of making abusive remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a Cockroach Janta Party protest has withdrawn her complaint after the teenager apologised and Modi publicly forgave the students.
Supreme Court lawyer Smriti Singh told PTI on Tuesday evening that she had withdrawn complaints in all eight cases linked to the matter. She said the original FIR was filed against eight girls, with the Noida teenager being the first among them.
Singh, a resident of Ghaziabad’s Vasundhara, said a zero FIR was registered on July 29 at the Expressway police station in Noida based on her complaint. The case was registered under Sections 352, 353(1) and 356(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
‘SINCE PM FORGAVE THEM, I DON’T WANT TO PURSUE IT’
Singh said she had decided to withdraw the complaints after the girls posted apology videos following Modi’s appeal for forgiveness.
“After the prime minister appealed for forgiveness, the girls, including the Noida girl, uploaded apology videos. I had also posted a video saying that if the girls apologised, I would withdraw my complaint,” Singh said.
She said the remaining girls also apologised later.
“Since the prime minister forgave them, I also do not want to pursue the matter further. I have communicated my decision to Delhi Police and Crime Branch,” Singh told PTI.
FAMILY NOT AT NOIDA HOME
At the housing society in Sector 168 where the teenager and her mother lived, security guards and maintenance staff told PTI that the family was not at home.
“The family had remained withdrawn since the video surfaced. Personnel from Delhi and Noida police had visited their residence on a few occasions,” a security guard said.
The staff said they did not know the family’s current whereabouts.
The family’s lawyer had earlier alleged that the teenager and her family were being “harassed and hounded”.
However, an official at Noida’s Expressway police station said police had received no information about the family facing harassment either within the housing society or elsewhere in its jurisdiction.
The officer said Noida Police registered a zero FIR on the day the complaint was received and transferred it to Delhi Police because the alleged incident took place in the national capital.
“The family has not been in contact with us since then and has not shared any information or complaint with the local police,” the officer said, adding that the family may have temporarily shifted to Faridabad in neighbouring Haryana.
MOTHER HAD APPEALED TO MODI
Days earlier, the girl’s mother had appealed to Modi to forgive her daughter, saying the family had repeatedly apologised and that the teenager had been influenced during the protest.
Speaking to PTI Videos on August 1, she said she was grateful to the prime minister for publicly forgiving her daughter.
The mother also urged Modi to consider restricting children’s access to social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook between the ages of 10 and 20.
“Minors should be kept away from protests and political activities as they can be easily influenced,” she said.
She also alleged that police personnel had repeatedly visited their residence after the video of her daughter’s remarks went viral, despite the family’s apologies.
The mother further appealed to Modi to intervene, claiming that her daughter’s age had been incorrectly mentioned in the FIR. She said the girl was 15 and requested that the case be withdrawn so that she could “live peacefully”.
LAWYER QUESTIONS FIR DETAILS
The family’s lawyer, Anil Kumar, told PTI Videos that the girl was a juvenile and claimed that the complaint had incorrectly described her as a 25-year-old woman working in a salon.
“The FIR had been registered without a proper preliminary verification and had that been done, the FIR would not have been registered at all,” he said.
HOW THE CONTROVERSY BEGAN
The controversy began after a video purportedly showing the girl using abusive language against Modi during a Cockroach Janta Party-led protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar went viral.
The protest was organised over paper leaks and alleged irregularities in the education system and sought the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who later stepped down.
The girl subsequently posted an apology video, saying she had been “influenced”, was “extremely embarrassed and ashamed” and that it was her “first and last mistake”.
