The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday lifted the interim stay on the execution of an arrest warrant against Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee after no one appeared on his behalf in the court in a defamation case.
The order came on a day when the Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal, who is already facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate on corruption charges, was booked in two fresh cases in his home state.
A single bench of justice Pramod Kumar Agarwal dismissed Banerjee’s plea and lifted the stay, granted by the high court on November 12, 2025, on the execution of the arrest warrant issued by a special MP/MLA court in Bhopal. “No one has appeared on behalf of petitioner in the first round also. It seems that petitioner has lost interest in prosecuting this petition… Accordingly, the stay granted in favour of the petitioner is also vacated,” the court said.
The defamation suit against Banerjee was filed in 2021 by former Indore MLA Akash Vijayvargiya, son of senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya. The suit alleged Banerjee had called Akash a “goon” while addressing a rally in Kolkata in November 2020.
Two fresh cases
Meanwhile, two fresh FIRs were registered against Abhishek Banerjee in two different police stations in Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district. Both FIRs have been registered on complaints filed by BJP leader Abhijit Das.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, two fresh FIRs were registered against Abhishek Banerjee in two different police stations in Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district. Both FIRs have been registered on complaints filed by BJP leader Abhijit Das.
{{/usCountry}}While one case relates to alleged illegal excavation of soil from government land near Joka in the southwestern fringes of Kolkata, the second FIR pertains to alleged siphoning of relief funds after cyclone Amphan in May 2020.