A Delhi court on Thursday granted interim bail till February 28 to Congress leader Pawan Khera, arrested by the Assam Police in a case related to his alleged objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Archana Beniwal granted interim bail to Khera, who was produced before the court, on a bail bond of Rs 30,000 and one surety of the like amount.
The magistrate passed the order around 6.10 pm after receiving a copy of the apex court’s order for Khera’s release. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had earlier in the day ordered grant of interim bail to Khera till February 28 in the case lodged in Assam over his alleged objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which the Assam Police arrested him after having him deplaned at the Delhi airport amid chaotic scenes.
The SC Bench also comprising Justices MR Shah and PS Narasimha had said, “In order to protect the petitioner (Khera) until he applies for regular bail before the jurisdictional courts in relation to all the FIRs, we direct that till the next date of listing, the petitioner shall be released on interim bail by the court of competent magistrate in Delhi.””The above order will remain operational till Tuesday (February 28),” the bench said and listed the matter for hearing on February 27.
The apex court issued notices to the states of Assam and Uttar Pradesh seeking their responses to Khera’s plea for transferring and clubbing together three separate FIRs lodged against him in Assam, and Uttar Pradesh cities of Lucknow and Varanasi for his alleged offensive remarks against the prime minister.
After dictating the order, the CJI, apparently displeased with the Congress leader’s remarks, told senior advocate AM Singhvi, who was representing Khera, “We have protected you (Khera) but there has to be some level of discourse.” In its order, the bench said it is inclined to entertain the plea on the limited issue of whether the FIRs should be clubbed or not, and added such a course of action has been adopted in journalist Arnab Goswami’s case earlier.
In fast-paced developments, Khera, who had boarded a flight from New Delhi to Raipur to attend the Congress plenary session, was deplaned, detained and finally arrested by the Assam Police in connection with an FIR lodged in Haflong. Soon after the news about Khera’s detention broke, Singhvi mentioned the matter for urgent listing at 2 pm before a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Chandrachud which was hearing the Maharashtra Shiv Sena matter.The CJI assured him a bench will take up the matter at 3 PM.As the hearing got underway, Singhvi told the court that Khera had already apologised for his remarks made at a press conference on February 17 in Mumbai and the offences alleged against him in the cases did not require arrest.
