The Uttar Pradesh and Assam police have opposed Congress spokesman Pawan Khera’s plea for the clubbing and consolidation of multiple FIRs registered against him in the two states for distorting the name of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the course of a press conference.
As the Assam and the Uttar Pradesh police opposed the plea, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice P S Narasimha and Justice J B Pardiwala adjourned the matter for March 17 and extended the interim protection from arrest to Khera till then.
The Assam Police, which arrested Khera earlier in the day on February 23, had produced him before a magistrate court n in Dwarka, which granted him interim bail.
Khera was arrested by the Assam Police on February 23 at Delhi‘s IGI airport. He was deboarded from the flight where he along with other Congress leaders was going to Raipur for Congress plenary session.
While the Assam Police have questioned Khera over his apology before the top court on February 23, the Uttar Pradesh Police said that the plea for the clubbing of FIRs was an attempt to stall investigations into deliberate and defamatory distortion of the Prime Minister’s name – one of the highest constitutional functionaries of the country.
Both the Assam and Uttar Pradesh police have said this in their reply to the notice issued by the top court on February 23, 2023. The top court while issuing notice to Assam and Uttar Pradesh on Khera’s plea for the clubbing of all the FIRs at one place, in a relief to Khera had asked the Delhi Court to release him on interim bail.
The Assam Police have asserted that a closer look at the available audio video clearly reveals that Pawan Khera has mischievously uttered sentences only with an extreme degree of irresponsibility but reducing the level of discourse at its lowest.
Uttar Pradesh police has said that any interference in the course of an investigation is impermissible, and Pawan Khera is not entitled to seek the intervention of the top court in the course of the investigation.
The Uttar Pradesh Police have said that the relief sought is limited to clubbing and consolidation of all FIRs, lodged pursuant to the deliberate attempt to denigrate a constitutional functionary, in one jurisdiction. It said that it is intended to stall the investigation against him.