Congress Karnal Lok Sabha candidate and proclaimed offender Divyanshu Budhiraja, has suffered a big blow ahead of polls after the Punjab and Haryana High Court gave no relief to him here on Thursday. He had moved to the high court last week to quash an FIR registered against him in a five-year-old case for his alleged failure to appear before the trial court in a criminal case. The court had issued summons to Budhiraja several times to appear, but did not appear which led to declaring him proclaimed offender by the Panchkula court. Initially, the petition was dismissed by the court during the hearing on May 2 but given the request of Budhiraja’s lawyer that ‘’His client will surrender’’ the matter has been listed for hearing on May 7 by the court. Legal experts are of the opinion that in case the petition gets dismissed, then it is most likely to put obstacles in his way ahead of polls and he will have to surrender now. The case will be argued on a merit basis. It is noteworthy that the Panchkula court initiated proclamation proceedings against the Congress candidate in a five-year-old case of property defacement in 2023. What the orders issued by chief judicial magistrate Dr. Rajni Kaushal said then is that sufficient opportunities have already been granted for the execution of warrants of arrest against Budhiraja. It clearly shows the accused has due knowledge regarding the pendency of the case as he was earlier pursuing the same and it seems the accused is intentionally avoiding the service. In such circumstances, the court is satisfied that the presence of the accused cannot be secured through ordinary means of process. Let a proclamation under Section 82 (1) of CrPC 1973 be issued against Budhiraja, requiring the accused to appear before this court within 30 days from the date of publication of the proclamation. The Haryana Police had been given time till November 20 last year to execute the order. It is noteworthy that in January 2018, when held the position of president of the Haryana unit of the National Students Association of India (NSUI), he organised a NSUI programme after he and his associates had been released on bail in a criminal case registered against them for opposing then CM Manohar Lal Khattar in Panchkula.
The NSUI had put up hoardings and banners at roundabouts without obtaining the permission of the local administration. A defacement case was then registered at the Sector 14 police station.