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New Delhi: On Tuesday,Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, the Supreme Court quashed a criminal defamation case instituted against him in Ahmedabad. The order came days after the former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar had filed an apology affidavit before the top court.
A bench of justice Abhay Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan allowed the petition filed by Tejaswi Yadav which had sought quashing of the criminal defamation complaint or in the alternate, transfer of the case to a neutral venue outside Gujarat. Tuesday’s development came after the Supreme Court on January 24 granted a week to Tejashwi Yadav to file a “clear” statement withdrawing his remarks.
During a press conference in March 2023, The case pertains to a statement made by Tejashwi Yadav, during which he allegedly said “Gujarati hi thag hai ho sakta hai (only Gujaratis can be thugs) in the present situation, and their fraud (crime) will be forgiven. Who will be responsible if they abscond after they are offered the money belonging to the LIC and the bank?”
Yadav had made this remark while commenting on the withdrawal of red Corner notice against Mehul Choksi, who is accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of Rs 13,000 crore. In November last year, the Supreme Court issued a notice and paused the defamation trial against the RJD leader.
Following Yadav’s statement one Gujarati businessman Haresh Mehta had filed a criminal defamation case under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code against the former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister. Haresh Mehta, a social worker and businessman from Ahmedabad, had filed the complaint in a Gujarat court along with the proof of the former Deputy Chief Minister’s statement.
Mehta said the statement was made in public and calling the entire Gujarati community thugs defamed and humiliated all Gujaratis. Yadav was also summoned by a metropolitan magistrate in Ahmedabad last year, but the Supreme Court had stayed all proceedings in the trial court after Yadav approached the apex court and filed an affidavit withdrawing his statement.
