Congress leader Pawan Khera was on Thursday deplaned and detained at the Delhi airport based on a case against him lodged by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Assam for the former’s controversial remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to police, a team of the Delhi police deplaned and detained Khera while he was on his way to Raipur in Chattisgarh to attend the party’s three-day plenary session, which will start on Friday. A team of the Assam police is in Delhi to arrest and take him to the northeastern state.
“On Thursday, a case against Khera was lodged in the Halflong police station by Samuel Changsan. Based on this we have sent a team to Delhi for further legal proceedings,” said Mayank Kumar, superintendent of police (SP) of Dima Hasao district in Assam.
Changsan is a BJP leader from Assam and at present an executive member of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) in the state.
The case has been lodged under several sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (spreading religious enmity), 500 (defamation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) 505 1a (making statement with intent to cause fear or alarm in public).
Khera while addressing a press conference had referred to the PM as ‘Narendra Gautamdas Modi’ while demanding an inquiry by a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) into allegations by US-based Hindenburg Research of financial irregularities by the Adani Group owned by industrialist Gautam Adani.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday tweeted, “Make no mistake-pathetic remarks by courtier Pawan Khera on PM’s father have blessings of the top levels of Congress which is full of entitlement and disdain against a person of humble origins being PM. India will not forget or forgive these horrible remarks of Congressmen,”
The Congress slammed Khera’s detention and said it will take all legal and democratic means to secure his release.
“Is Khera and anti-national or is he fleeing the country? When the Assam CM questioned our leader Rahul Gandhi’s DNA, we had tried to lodge a case. But the Assam police didn’t lodge it. Now based on a statement, they have filed a case and even arrested Khera,” said Bhupen Kumar Borah, Assam Congress president.
In April 20 last year, the police in Assam arrested Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and took him to the northeastern state for alleged offensive tweets against PM Modi.
He was granted bail on April 25, but rearrested immediately and sent to custody for five days for allegedly outraging the modesty of a woman police officer following his arrest. Mevani was granted bail on April 29 by the Gauhati high court.
