An extraordinary set of pre-events followed on Thursday before the arrest of Congress leader Pawan Khera by the Assam Police in connection with an FIR over his alleged remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Khera was on board a New Delhi-Raipur Indigo flight, with some of his Congress party colleagues when the cabin crew came to him and said that he had to deplane as there was some confusion over his luggage.
When Khera came out of the plane, a team of Delhi police was waiting outside for him and stopped him from taking the flight as he could not fly out of the city.
Khera was detained on request of the Assam Police. “He was detained by the Delhi Police on a request by Assam Police. We were just extending support to them. The arrest has been made by them,” a senior Delhi Police officer told PTI.
Runway dharna
Khera’s encounter with the Delhi police was followed by a protest on the airstrip by other Congress leaders who were on the plane with him. The leaders did not let the police take him without an arrest warrant.
As the drama escalated, several Congress leaders, including senior leader Randeep Surjewala, squatted and raised slogans against the government while on the runway.
As Khera was taken out of the Delhi airport by Assam Police, he interacted with the media and said, “We will see (in which case they are taking me). It is a long battle and I am ready to fight.”
Senior Congress leader K C Venugopal said that it was “totally condemnable” the way BJP was doing these things. “We are all going to Raipur for the plenary session, Pawan Khera was also travelling with us, suddenly they deplaned Pawan Khera without any valid reason,” he said.
“After half an hour, Delhi Police comes and says they have to hand him (Khera) over to Assam Police. We asked if there is an FIR, arrest warrant or any document, but nothing is there, only oral orders,” he added.
Taking to Twitter, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “we are all on the @IndiGo6E flight 6E 204 to Raipur and all of a sudden my colleague @Pawankhera has been asked to deplane.”
“What sort of high handedness is this? Is there any rule of law? On what grounds is this being done and under whose order?” she added.
What did Indigo say?
The aircraft was delayed and the Indigo staff said the passengers will be put on another flight to Raipur.
IndiGo said that it was following the advice of concerned authorities.
“The flight is delayed as of now and we regret the inconvenience caused to other passengers,” the carrier said in a statement.
Other developments on Pawan Khera’s arrest
A case against Khera was registered at the Haflong police station in Assam under various sections of the IPC, including 153 B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national interest), 500 (punishment for defamation) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).
The Congress accused the government of reducing India’s democracy to “Hitlar-shahi” and “dictatorship” but the ruling BJP shrugged off the criticism, saying the opposition party’s leaders should not live in this misconception that they are above the law.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered interim bail to Congress leader Pawan Khera.
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