Uttarakhand High Court: Uttarakhand High Court discharges man from charges for criticizing former CM Trivendra Rawat |

Dehradun: The High Court of Uttarakhand settled a case against a man from Pithoragarh who allegedly made derogatory comments against former Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in 2020. Garvit alias Govind Singh Danu had posted on social media that the then CM gave himself a clean chit in a multi-crore seed procurement scam.
A single bench of Justice Ravindra Maithani quashed the FIR, summons and charge sheet against Garvit. His lawyer, Dushyant Mainali, praised the court’s order, saying it was “his freedom of expression“.
He was also accused of impersonating a police officer on a Facebook account under the name Garvit Danu. The case against him was filed at Roorkee police station on May 8, 2020 under Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of IPC and 66D of the IT Act ( cheating by personification using computer source). He was arrested by the Special Operations Group (SOG), but the Haridwar court granted him bail nine days later on May 15, 2020.
The chargesheet in the case was filed in the court of the Additional Chief Magistrate, Roorkee, who issued a summons to Garvit. He then approached the Supreme Court in 2022 seeking to stay the lower court’s order and quash the FIR and charge sheet against him.
Mainali said the High Court ruled that his client was not impersonating anyone else as the photo he used was a group photo. He added that there were no complaints against Garvit that he had deceived anyone by posing as a police officer. Mainali said, “In the case of making comments against the former CM, the court said the FIR was filed with malicious intent as no element of deception and impersonation was found as per the content. The court also protected freedom of expression.”
Dehradun: The Uttarakhand High Court on Friday disposed of a case against a man from Pithoragarh for allegedly making derogatory remarks against former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in 2020. Garvit alias Govind Singh Danu had posted on social media that the then CM gave himself a clean chit in a multi-crore seed procurement scam.
A single bench of Justice Ravindra Maithani quashed the FIR, summons and chargesheet against Garvit. His lawyer Dushyant Mainali praised the court’s order, saying it “protected his freedom of expression”.
He was also accused of posing as a police officer on a Facebook account under the name Garvit Danu. The case against him was filed at Roorkee police station on May 8, 2020 under Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of IPC and 66D of the IT Act ( cheating by personification using computer source). He was arrested by the Special Operations Group (SOG), but the Haridwar court granted him bail nine days later on May 15, 2020.
The chargesheet in the case was filed in the court of the Additional Chief Magistrate, Roorkee, who issued a summons to Garvit. He then approached the Supreme Court in 2022 seeking to stay the lower court’s order and quash the FIR and charge sheet against him.
Mainali said the High Court ruled that his client was not impersonating anyone else as the photo he used was a group photo. He added that there were no complaints against Garvit that he had deceived anyone by posing as a police officer. Mainali said, “In the case of making comments against the former CM, the court said the FIR was filed with malicious intent as no element of deception and impersonation was found as per the content. The court also protected freedom of expression.”