A day after the arrest and the subsequent interim bail for Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday referred to his former party colleague as an “accused” and said that he has tendered an “unconditional apology”. Sarma also said that the Assam police will follow the matter and take it to its “logical end”.
In a tweet, sharing a record of the Supreme Court proceedings, Sarma wrote, “The majesty of law shall always prevail. The accused has tendered an unconditional apology (Para 7). We hope that keeping the sanctity of public spaces, no one will use uncivilized language in political discourse hereafter. @assampolice will follow the matter to its logical end.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Delhi’s Dwarka court to grant interim relief to the Congress leader, after he told the apex court that the remarks he made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a press conference recently was a “mistake”.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Khera, told the top court that making those statements was “a mistake, a slip of tongue”. Singhvi also sought interim relief for Pawan Khera and consolidation of FIRs (in Lucknow, Varanasi and Dima Hasao) which were being registered.
The para 7 of the document, that Sarma shared on Friday, read, “…Dr Singhvi has stated that the petitioner has since clarified that the use of the language was inadvertent, though inappropriate, and that he would not stand by the use of such language. However, Dr Singhvi states that the petitioner tenders an unconditional apology.”
On Thursday, before being arrested by Assam Police, Khera was deplaned from a Delhi-Raipur flight at the Delhi airport. Nearly 50 Congress leaders, including party general secretary KC Venugopal, MP Randeep Surjewala, and spokesperson Supriya Shrinate—who were all flying to Raipur for the three-day Congress’ plenary meeting —launched a protest at the airport tarmac after Khera was deplaned.
Three FIRs have been filed against Khera — one in Assam, and two in UP (Varanasi and Lucknow). He has been booked under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 500 (defamation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Khera’s interim bail ends on Tuesday, February 28.