New Delhi: In a huge setback to Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, the Supreme Court has stayed his transit anticipatory bail ordered by the Telangana High Court last week.
Transit anticipatory bail is a temporary protection for an accused person to prevent arrest by police from another state or jurisdiction, enabling them to travel and seek regular anticipatory bail in the appropriate court.
On a plea filed by the Assam government challenging the HC order, a bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and A.S. Chandurkar issued notice and noted a discrepancy in the documents submitted by Khera in court.
In the Aadhaar card submitted by him, the front side has Khera’s details while the back “indicates his wife’s address”, the top court noted Wednesday.
“Thus, by furnishing a forged document, Khera took advantage of the jurisdiction of Telangana High Court,” said the bench, staying the high court’s order passed on 10 April granting week-long transit anticipatory bail to him.
The Assam Police had registered an FIR against Khera on charges of defamation, forgery and criminal conspiracy over his allegations against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife.
Khera had claimed that Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan holds “multiple foreign passports and ‘undisclosed assets abroad” in a press conference held on 5 April. Khera also alleged that Sarma’s wife’s assets were not disclosed in his election affidavit for the Assam assembly polls held on 9 April.
In the SC, representing the Assam government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that Khera seeking bail from the Telangana High Court in a case registered in Assam was a “complete abuse of process” and amounted to “forum choosing”.
On 10 April, HC Justice K. Sujana had ruled that after one week, Khera can approach the “appropriate forum” in Assam for regular anticipatory bail.
Khera told the HC that a case had been registered against him by the Assam Police under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in connection with offences such as criminal conspiracy, forgery, criminal intimidation, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, statements conducive to public mischief, among others.
Calling it an “abuse of the process of law”, Khera argued that this was being done with the intention of harassing and intimidating him.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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