The Supreme Court on Thursday declined a plea by Congress leader Pawan Khera seeking quashing of FIR and criminal proceedings against him for allegedly making objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Khera moved the apex court challenging the Allahabad High Court’s refusal to quash the criminal proceedings against him.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta remarked that it was not inclined to interfere with the high court order.
"Sorry, we are not inclined," the bench said, according to a PTI report.
Last year on August 17, the high court dismissed the plea filed by Khera saying that the evidence collected by the investigating officer of the case cannot be evaluated in the petition filed under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for quashing the case.
The case stems from a remark that Khera made last year while criticising the Central government over the row involving the business conglomerate headed by Gautam Adani.
While demanding a probe into the allegations of stock manipulation by Hindenburg Research against Adani Group, Khera — on one occasion — referred to PM Modi as "Narendra Gautamdas Modi".
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Following his comments, three FIRs were registered against the Congress leader in Assam and Uttar Pradesh which were clubbed together by the top court on March 20 last year and the matter was transferred to to the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow while extending his interim bail.
He was granted bail in the case by Lucknow High Court.
Two of the three FIRs were lodged at the Cantonment police station in Varanasi and the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow. The third FIR was registered in Assam.
On 23 February, he was arrested by Assam police from Delhi airport as he was taking a flight to Raipur to attend a Congress plenary session.