Supreme Court Relief For Congress’ Pawan Khera, Who Was Deplaned, Arrested

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera was given interim bail hours after his dramatic arrest from the Delhi airport today, after being taken off a flight to Chhattisgarh capital Raipur over an alleged insult to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“There has to be some level of discourse, we are protecting you,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, hearing the Congress petition against cases registered in Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

Mr Khera was arrested over his controversial comments at a press conference recently. He had flubbed PM Modi’s name while demanding a joint parliamentary probe into the Adani-Hindenburg row. “If Narasimha Rao could form a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee), if Atal Bihari Vajpayee could form a JPC, then what problem does Narendra Gautam Das…sorry Damodardas…Modi have?” he said, appearing to confirm the middle name with a colleague.

The Congress argued in the Supreme Court that it was a “slip of tongue” and Mr Khera had apologised. The Supreme Court accepted the party’s request to club all the FIRs against him.

“I for one don’t believe in crossing boundaries. But if you have crossed boundaries, this can’t be the reaction. It was unfortunate. He did a play on words which he shouldn’t have as per me. “I genuinely got confused whether it is Damodardas or Gautamdas.” This came on television. He also said I made a mistake,” said lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi. 

Earlier today, Mr Khera was forced to exit the IndiGo flight after he and other Congress leaders boarded it; they were heading to Raipur for a meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). 

“It’s a long battle and I’m ready to fight,” he said as he was whisked away by the police.

The BJP insists that Mr Khera’s fumble was deliberate.

“Make no mistake – pathetic remarks by courtier Pawan Khera on PM’s father have blessings of the top levels of Congress, which is full of entitlement and disdain against a person of humble origins being PM. India will not forget or forgive these horrible remarks of Congressmen,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said.

The Congress said the BJP is acting out of fear and wants to block the party’s plenary session because of the “successful Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi”. Last week, the Enforcement Directorate carried out searches on Congress MLAs in Chhattisgarh over allegations of money-laundering.

“This is nothing but a rattled government and its high-handedness,” Congress’s Supriya Srinate told NDTV.

Credit: NDTV

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