The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by Congress leader Pawan Khera seeking quashing of FIRs and criminal proceedings against him for distorting the middle name of the Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi.
A bench of Justice B R Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta declined to quash FIR and criminal proceedings against him after the court was informed that the chargesheet in the case has already been filed.
The bench said they are not inclined to interfere with the high court order saying, “Sorry, we are not inclined.”
Khera challenged the August 17, 2023 Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash criminal proceedings against him for mispronouncing the name of the prime minister as ‘Narendra Gautam Das Modi’ at a press conference.
The high court had dismissed Khera’s plea stating that the evidence collected by the investigating officer cannot be evaluated in petition filed under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for quashing the case.
On March 20, 2023, the top court had clubbed three FIRs lodged against Khera in Assam, Varanasi and Lucknow for his remarks and transferred the matter to the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow while extending his interim bail.
The Lucknow court had granted bail to the Congress leader in the case.
The Congress spokesperson had tendered an unconditional apology in the court for the remarks.
On February 23, the Assam Police arrested Khera from IGI airport in respect of an FIR registered over the remark at a press conference in Mumbai on February 17. The top court granted him interim bail the same day, which was extended from time to time.
Khera is facing charges under Sections 153A (promoting communal enmity), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 500 (defamation), 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.