The Telangana High Court reserved its order on Pawan Khera’s request for transit anticipatory bail in an Assam Police case alleging forgery and conspiracy. His counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi said charges reflected “jungle raj and a wild west.”
The Telangana High Court reserved its decision on Congress leader Pawan Khera’s application for transit anticipatory bail in an Assam Police case alleging forgery and criminal conspiracy.
Assam Police registered the case which also includes charges of defamation after Khera publicly claimed that Riniki Bhuyan, wife of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, holds multiple foreign passports and undeclared assets overseas.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Khera, argued that the charges were motivated by political vendetta and amounted to “jungle raj and a wild west” approach.
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Singhvi said,
“Are we living in the wild west where for a complaint like this, you have to arrest me? In the FIR, every imaginable offence is listed. The allegation is that I held a press conference and I made defamatory statements against you. Just to harass me you have added every offence that can be imagined,”
He added,
“I am a political opponent. If you start arresting people like this, this becomes nothing but jungle raj.”
Assam Advocate General Devajit Saikia disputed those assertions, accused Khera of forgery, and questioned why Khera approached the Telangana High Court when he lives in Delhi and the FIR was lodged in Assam.
Saikia told the court,
“There is no indication that he cannot come to Assam. Assam is not a banana republic. There is no threat to his life,”
Justice K. Sujana presided over the hearing, which lasted more than an hour, before reserving judgment. Media reports indicate Assam Police visited Khera’s Delhi residence on April 7 but did not find him there.
Khera filed the transit anticipatory bail plea after that visit. Singhvi told the court that numerous offences have been arrayed against his client for comments made at a press conference about the Assam Chief Minister.
On bail, Singhvi emphasized that Khera is not a criminal but a well-known political figure who is not a flight risk.
He argued,
“My wife resides in Hyderabad permanently and I also reside here often. I have submitted proof. I am not a flight risk. I am a prominent political figure. I am not a habitual offender or criminal. Even if you assume all the allegations are true, I am not a flight risk. I am an active politician. I can cooperate. The whole world knows me because I am on television,”
Singhvi said the case’s true aim was to silence and intimidate Khera.
He contended,
“Why can’t you do the same thing without arresting me? Answer is simple, because you want to harass me, you want to scare me, you want to intimidate me. You want to silence me. This complaint is registered at midnight, 12:49 a.m on sixth, which is just after midnight on April 7. And this is all on camera, nothing I’m saying is off the record. Hundred policemen come to one of the houses where I live in Delhi,”
He also protested Assam Police sending 100 officers to Delhi to arrest Khera in a defamation matter.
Singhvi submitted,
“We are not living in an age of constitutional cowboys. We are not living in an age of malice, whipping out things from the holster and sending 100 people from Assam to Nizamuddin for what the complaint says is a defamation case,”
He further objected to the language reportedly used by the Chief Minister about Khera, saying malafide political vendetta was apparent and that the complaint effectively stemmed from the Chief Minister himself.
The Assam Advocate General pointed out the plea did not explain why Khera could not seek anticipatory bail in Assam.
Saikia argued,
“There is not a single whisper here about why he cannot come to Assam and file for anticipatory bail. There is no medical reason. He was in Assam on 5th. He was here. He can file anticipatory bail in Assam from any part of the country. the power to grant extra territorial anticipatory bail should be exercised only in exceptional and compelling circumstances. There is nothing mentioned about that in the plea. He could have even moved a court in Delhi since he resides there. Instead, he is in Hyderabad. Although he is saying he is not a flight risk, he is an established flight risk at this stage, when police went to him, he fled,”
He added that Assam is not a “banana republic” and that no threat prevents Khera from approaching Assam courts.
Saikia also maintained the case involves more than simple defamation. Khera’s counsel reiterated that the application sought only transit anticipatory bail, noting Khera’s wife is a permanent resident of Hyderabad and has contested elections there.
The bench queried why Khera could not apply for anticipatory bail in Assam even while living in Hyderabad, and noted allegations that an Aadhaar card was forged.
The court has reserved its order.