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Telangana HC grants anticipatory bail to Pawan Khera in Assam Police FIR
When Khera’s counsel urged the court to extend the one week time protecting him from arrest, Justice K Sujana, who was presiding over the matter, said that Khera was “a very important person”
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The Telangana High Court on Friday granted Congress leader Pawan Khera anticipatory bail for one week in connection with a first information report (FIR) filed against him by the Assam Police. The FIR was registered following a complaint by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, over Khera’s allegations that she holds multiple passports.
When Khera’s counsel urged the court to extend the one week time protecting him from arrest, Justice K Sujana, who was presiding over the matter, said that Khera was “a very important person”, and the court was certain that the Congress leader can move the Guwahati high court for further relief within a week.
On Thursday, Khera had sought anticipatory bail before Justice Sujana arguing that no arrest was warranted in what was, “at the highest,” a case of alleged defamation, and accusing Sarma of using the State police to harass and intimidate him.
Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Khera, told the court that the Assam CM was being politically vindictive and in sending his state police after Khera, he was behaving like a “constitutional cowboy” who could “put Rambo to shame.”
Singhvi argued that the FIR itself framed the allegations against Khera as “defamatory imputations”, and therefore, there was no necessity of custodial interrogation.
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Singhvi had told the high court that Khera, a prominent political figure, was neither a flight risk nor a habitual offender and therefore, there was no need for his arrest at the present stage in the case.
Opposing Khera’s plea, the Assam Police had argued that the case went beyond simple defamation and involved serious allegations of forgery and fabrication of documents.
Assam Advocate General Devajit Saikia, who appeared for the Assam police, had also told the high court that Khera should have moved the Guwahati high court instead for relief.
Singhvi however, had said that Khera’s wife resides in Hyderabad and that Khera himself was in Hyderabad when the police had arrived at his residence in Delhi. He was therefore well within his rights to move the Telangana high court for anticipatory bail, Singhvi had argued.
The FIR was registered following a complaint by Riniki Sharma on April 6 this year, after Khera alleged in a press conference that she held multiple foreign passports and undisclosed overseas assets.
Saikia had told the court on Thursday that Sharma had denied all allegations against her and had said that Khera had used “fake and forged” documents to make the allegations against her.
