Madras High Court quashes FIR against BJP’s Shobha Karandlaje after State accepts her apology

The Madras High Court Thursday quashed the First Information Report (FIR) registered against BJP Member of Parliament Shobha Karandlaje, after the Tamil Nadu government told the Court it did not wish to pursue the matter further..Advocate General PS Raman told a bench presided by Justice G Jayachandran that the State had taken a “policy decision” to accept the apology rendered by Karandlaje to the people of Tamil Nadu through an affidavit submitted in Court.Hence, it will not pursue the matter further, it was submitted.Justice Jayachandran accepted the Sate’s submission and directed that the FIR against Karandlaje registered by the Madurai police be quashed..Karandlaje had sought quashing of the FIR registered against her by the Madurai City Cybercrime Police following a comment she made against the people of Tamil Nadu during a press conference.As per the FIR, following the blasts in Rameshwaram Café in Bengaluru on March 1 this year, Karandlaje had allegedly said in the press conference, “People trained in Tamil Nadu plant bombs here. Bomb was planted at the hotel.” .The TN government had earlier told the Court that it was willing to quash the case against Karandlaje if she held a press conference to apologise for her comments..On September 3, Karandlaje’s counsel, Senior Advocate Aruna Shyam had told the Court that while the BJP leader was not willing to hold a press conference to apologise, she had expressed her regret and apologised to all citizens of the State in an affidavit.In such affidavit, Karandlaje had said she had the “highest regard for the people of Tamil Nadu” and that she had not intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments..“Having understood that the comments made by me had hurt the sentiments and feelings of some people of Tamil Nadu, I have already retracted my previous comments and tendered my profound apologies through social media platforms. I have the highest respect and regard to the history, rich culture, tradition and to the people of Tamil Nadu and I had or have no intention whatsoever to hurt the sentiments of people of Tamil Nadu by any conduct of mine. Hence, I hereby once again tender my apology to the people of Tamil Nadu for having caused any hurt from my comments. The same may kindly be taken on record in the interest of justice,” the affidavit read.