SC reserves ruling in Tejashwi Yadav’s appeal seeking transfer of defamation case

NEW DELHI: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav submitted a petition on Monday asking for the criminal defamation case against him to be moved from an Ahmedabad court, where it was first filed, to a location outside the state, preferably Delhi. The Supreme Court delayed its decision on the request. A new apology submitted by Yadav was recorded by a bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan.

“We’ll issue directives,” the bench said.
On January 29, the Supreme Court issued a directive to Yadav to submit a “proper statement” retracting his purported remarks that “only Gujaratis can be thugs”.
On January 19, Yadav withdrew his purported comments about “Gujarati thugs” and submitted an affidavit with the top court.
Prior to considering the RJD leader’s petition, the top court had halted the criminal defamation case’s proceedings and sent notice to the Gujarati citizen who had filed it.
Yadav was the target of a criminal defamation charge brought under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In response to a complaint by local businessman and activist Haresh Mehta, the Gujarat court began a preliminary investigation into Yadav in August under section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and determined there were adequate reasons to call him.
In a March 2023 interview with the media in Patna, Yadav allegedly said, “Only Gujaratis can be thugs in the present situation, and their fraud will be forgiven.”
The deputy chief minister of Bihar at the time was said to have asked, “Who will be responsible if they run away with the money belonging to the LIC or banks?”
Yadav’s remarks, according to Mehta, disparaged all Gujaratis.