July 17, 2026

Delhi Police Arrest Pawan Khera, Supreme Court Releases Him On Interim Bail

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-02-23 11:29:58

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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The arrest of senior Congress leader Pawan Khera at Delhi airport after asking him to disembark from a flight was unnecessary and does not show the government in good light. There is no doubt what Pawan Khera said about Prime Minister Modi's father was gross and absolutely unacceptable, but the manner of the arrest was also unacceptable.

Khera is a senior leader. He was going to Raipur with other Congress leaders to attend the plenary session of the party. Assam police, acting on an FIR filed in a court in a remote corner of the state, invoked Sections 153A & 295 of the IPC (which the Supreme Court said was absurd while hearing an emergency plea against the arrest), and approached the Delhi police for arresting Khera. The Delhi police showed unseemly haste to carry out the task.

The worst part is that while the Delhi police conveniently ignores innumerable instances of more damning hate speeches under its watch and does not even register an FIR in most cases, let alone make an arrest, it chose to act with alarming speed in this case as if if Khera was allowed to go to Raipur he would abscond.

Khera's lawyers mentioned the matter in the Supreme Court which rightly directed that he be given interim bail when he is produced before a magistrate for transit remand by the Assam police. It also rightly directed Assam and UP police to club all FIRs in the matter (as the apex court had done in Arnab Goswami’s case). It ordered that Khera's interim bail would be valid till Tuesday and it will hear the matter next on Monday.

This was a lesson for the Delhi and Assam police as well as the government. Invoking stringent sections of the IPC for such matters means that government does not care much about personal liberty of citizens. Fortunately the Supreme Court has always stood up for the people and stopped such excesses.