Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 23: Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera was granted interim bail from custody on Thursday by the Supreme Court after he was arrested by the Assam and Uttar Pradesh Police for botching up the name of the prime minister during a press conference.
DY Chandrachud, the Chief Justice of India (CJI), and Justices PS Narasimha and MR Shah issued the ruling in response to a Supreme Court petition Khera filed shortly after being detained by the Assam Police on Thursday at the Delhi airport.
“In order to protect the petitioner until he applies for regular bail before the jurisdictional court in relation to all FIRs, we direct till next date of listing the petitioner shall be released on interim bail by Delhi court this evening,” the Court ordered.
Relevantly, the Court also sought the States of Uttar Pradesh and Assam’s answer to Khera’s request to combine many first information reports (FIRs) that had been filed against him in those States.
“We are inclined to entertain the plea confined to issue whether FIR should be clubbed or not. Such course of action has been adopted in Arnab Ranjan Goswami case. We also accept that, taken on their face value, the spoken words do not lead to the sections invoked in the FIR. Hence, we order – issue notice on the prayer to transfer and club all FIRs registered against Khera. Notice to Assam and the State of UP,” the order said.
Khera has been charged with violating Indian Penal Code Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, etc).
In a recent press conference, Khera misspelt Prime Minister Narendra Modi while calling for a joint parliamentary investigation into the Adani-Hindenburg dispute.
