New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the proceedings in a criminal defamation complaint filed in Gujarat against Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav in connection with his alleged “only Gujaratis can be thugs” remark. A bench of Justices AS Oka and Pankaj Mithal agreed to examine the RJD leader’s plea seeking shifting of the case, which is pending before a magisterial court in Ahmedabad, to a place outside Gujarat, preferably Delhi. Yadav moved the apex court seeking a transfer of the case through his lawyer Ajay Vikram Singh.
After a brief hearing in the matter, the apex court sought a response from the Gujarat-based man, who has filed the defamation complaint against Yadav, and scheduled the matter for further hearing in January. The complainant claimed that the statement made by Yadav defamed all Gujaratis.
A complaint was filed in a Gujarat court against Yadav under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for alleged criminal defamation. In August, a Gujarat court had conducted a preliminary inquiry against Yadav under Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and found sufficient grounds to summon him on the complaint filed by Haresh Mehta, a local businessman and activist.
The complainant had alleged that Yadav had said, while talking to the media in Patna, in March 2023 that “only Gujaratis can be thugs in the present situation, and their fraud will be forgiven.” “Who will be responsible if they run away with the money belonging to the LIC or banks?” Yadav had allegedly said.
