SC grants interim relief to Congress leader Pawan Khera; issues notice to UP, Assam Police to club FIRs

After the Congress approached the apex court, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, “we will protect you, but there has to be some level of discourse…”

Appearing for Khera, senior Advocate AS Singhvi told the apex court that Khera apologised and said that the remarks on PM Modi were by mistake and a ‘slip of tongue’.

Khera recently referred to the Prime Minister as “Narendra Gautamdas Modi” while addressing a press conference to demand an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into allegations made by the US-based Hindenburg Research firm against the Adani Group.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a Delhi Police spokesperson said, “A request was received from Assam Police for assistance in the arrest of accused Sri Pawan Khera. Based upon the same, local assistance was provided and upon the requisition of Assam Police, accused Shri Pawan Khera was detained from Terminal 1 of the IGI Airport and has been subsequently arrested by the Investigating Officer (IO) concerned of Assam Police.”

Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan, Inspector General of Police (L&O), and official spokesperson of Assam Police, told The Indian Express that a case against Khera was registered at the Haflong Police Station of the state’s Dima Hasao on Wednesday. “Accordingly, we have registered a case and deputed a team to Delhi to bring Pawan Khera for further interrogation. Right now, our team is in Delhi airport, being assisted by CISF and Delhi Police. They are doing necessary formalities,” he said.

“We will seek for transit remand to the local court in Delhi. After we get the transit remand, we will get him to the state,” he added. The complaint was filed by one Samuel Changsan, who described himself as a ‘social worker’. “According to the complainant, Khera had made some objectionable remarks about the Prime Minister a few days back, and there he was trying to vitiate the communal harmony in the society…that is the content of the FIR,” said Bhuyan.

The FIR has been registered under the following sections: 120 B, 153 A, 153 B (1), 500, 504, 505 (1) (2). In his initial reaction after being deplaned, Khera said that he was told it was over a luggage issue.

Who is Samuel Changsan, person who filed FIR against Pawan Khera?

An FIR was filed against Pawan Khera by Samuel Changsan, a BJP member, and Executive Member of its Scheduled Tribe Morcha in Assam. Changsan said that a “series of personalized attacks” on PM Modi by Khera led him to file the FIR.

Speaking to The Indian Express, he said, “I belong to a very remote part of the country and I have been having very positive vibes about the development across the country. I was affected by the series of very personalized attacks against the constitutional post of the Prime Minister in the last few months. So seeing that FIRs are filed in other parts of the country, I also decided to do so. I am quite pleasantly surprised that my state police has taken action in this matter”.

Congress calls arrest ‘undemocratic’, slams BJP for ‘dictatorial’ behaviour

The Congress, meanwhile, called the incident “undemocratic”, and said “we vehemently oppose this dictatorial behaviour”.

Sharing visuals of Khera being escorted into a bus, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “He’s being taken into the bus. Randeep Surjewala is going with him. They are being taken by the Assam Police. Isn’t this dictatorship? Is this the reality of your right to freedom to speech?”

She added, “You (Modi) made statements like ‘why don’t you use Nehru surname’, and you arrest our leaders.” Referring to Khera’s remarks, Shrinate said, “It was a slip of tongue and he corrected himself.”

The Congress leaders raised slogans against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the tarmac in protest. “Modi jab jab darta hai, police ko aage karta hai (Whenever Modi is scared, he puts the police in front),” the Congress leaders shouted.

In a statement on Twitter, the Congress said that the flight also included senior leaders general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal and general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The Congress said that earlier attempts were made to obstruct the plenary session with ED raids in Chhattisgarh. General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh, meanwhile, hit out Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying, “First ED raided Raipur, now @Pawankhera has been offloaded from Raipur by Delhi Police. Another name for dictatorship is Amit Shahi. The Modi government wants to disrupt our national convention. We are not afraid, will continue to fight for the countrymen.”

Due to the incident, the IndiGo flight to Raipur was cancelled and other passengers were put on another aircraft, reported PTI.

— With inputs from Ananthakrishnan G, Jignasa Sinha, and Tora Agarwala