Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 19 (IANS) A Delhi court Monday granted bail to Harvinder Singh who was arrested last month for slapping union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar soon after a public function here.

Allowing him to walk out of jail on bail, District Judge H.S. Sharma said: “Violence in any form at any place, irrespective of the grievance of an individual, is to be neither preached nor approved. The applicant (Harvinder Singh) may have his own ways to express his anger.”

“However, at the same time, he is to shun violence. Ours is a land of Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi where non-violence has always been preached and followed,” the court said.

The court asked Harvinder Singh to furnish a personal bond of Rs.10,000 with one surety of the same amount.

He was directed to give an undertaking that he would not indulge in violence in future.

While pleading for bail, Harvinder Singh Dec 16 told the court that he had suffered a bout of mental disorder and lost his senses minutes before the Nov 24 incident.

The small-time transporter from north Delhi slapped Pawar outside an auditorium on Parliament Street after a public function, saying it was a protest against price rise and corruption.

He earlier slapped former telecom minister Sukh Ram in Rohini court complex minutes after the Himachal Pradesh politician was sentenced to jail in a corruption case.

A magistrate Dec 14 dismissed Harvinder Singh’s bail plea saying that as per the medical report received from the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences he was a patient of “bipolar affective disorder” and required treatment for two-three weeks before he could be examined by the medical board.

The court also told IHBAS director to get him examined by a medical board and submit a report Dec 22.