Remark about PM Modi: Congress Leader Pawan Khera moves Allahabad High Court to quash FIR

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera has approached the Allahabad High Court seeking quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him after he botched up the name of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi at a press conference [Pawan Khera v. State of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Others]..A division bench of Justices Sangeeta Chandra and Narendra Kumar Johari, on April 6, sought responses from the State of Uttar Pradesh and the private complainants on Khera's plea.The private complainants are:- Mukesh Sharma - Member of Legislative Assembly of UP for Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)- Mahesh Chandra Srivastava - BJP's Kashi Region President and - Hen Samuel Changsan - Assam BJP Leader .At a recently held press conference, Khera had botched up PM Narendra Modi's name while demanding a joint parliamentary probe into the Adani-Hindenburg row."If Narasimha Rao could form a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee), if Atal Bihari Vajpayee could form a JPC, then what problem does Narendra Gautam Das...sorry Damodardas Modi have?" Khera had said.He later appeared to confirm the middle name with a colleague.The BJP has alleged that Khera deliberately flubbed the name. .Khera was booked for offences under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc.) and Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), Section 500 (punishment for defamation), Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and Section 505(2) (Statement creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code 1860.Khera was picked up from the Delhi airport on February 23 after he had boarded a plane to Chhattisgarh's Raipur where he was headed for a meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).He was deplaned and then taken by the Assam Police based on a first information report (FIR) registered against him.He had moved the Supreme Court, which granted him interim protection and ordered that the three cases registered against him in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Assam, should be clubbed and transferred to Lucknow..Before the High Court, Senior Advocate JN Mathur, appearing for Khera, told the Court that although in the FIR. registered at Assam there were several provisions invoked by the complainant, however the Investigating Officer had issued notice to the petitioner only under Sections 153-A, 153-B(1)/ 500/504/505(1)(b)/505(2) IPC.Khera's counsel conceded that Sections 295 and 120B IPC have been removed from the purview of investigation it seems that there is no imminent threat of arrest of the petitioner.However, he said that he was still seeks quashing of FIR as it is oppressive and no offence was made out from a bare perusal of the allegations in the same..The Court sought responses from the State of UP as well as the private complainants on Khera's plea. However, the Court made it clear that since the protection for Khera has already been extended by the top court, there exists no need for an interim order in favor of Khera."This Court having perused the final order passed by the Supreme Court on 20.03.2023 finds that the Court had already given the petitioner interim protection and also the option for applying of regular bail before the jurisdictional Court. Hence there is no need to grant any interim order as of now," the Court said.The matter will be heard again on May 4..[Read Order]