New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (May 28) closed the suo motu proceedings pending before the Madhya Pradesh High Court over state’s minister Kunwar Vijay Shah remarks against Colonel Sofiya Qureshi.
A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta asked the Madhya Pradesh High Court to close the proceedings in the suo motu case in view of the top court having seized of the matter.
“Since this court has taken cognizance, we request the High Court to close parallel proceedings,” the bench said.
The bench also ordered continuation of interim order staying the arrest of Shah in the case.
The apex court earlier, while hearing a plea moved by Shah against the High Court order directing registration of FIR against him over his statement calling Colonel Sophia Qureshi, who briefed the media along with Wing Commander Vyomika Singh on ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7, a “sister of terrorists”, slammed the minister for his statement and constituted a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to investigate the issue.
The bench, while earlier saying that as of now his arrest shall be stayed, directed the Madhya Pradesh minister to join and fully cooperate with the investigation and directed the SIT to submit the outcome of the investigation through a status report.
The bench was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Madhya Pradesh government, on Wednesday that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of three Indian Police Service (IPS) officers has been constituted and investigation into the matter has been started.
Mehta, while submitting that the investigation was in initial stage and seeking more time, informed the bench that more materials have been collected, script of the speech has been prepared, statements of witness recorded and mobile phone has been seized.
The bench directed to continue the probe and filed the status report and posted the matter for post partial working days while ordering for the continuation of the interim order.
The apex court earlier, while slamming Shah over his alleged statement against Colonel Sofia Qureshi, rejected the apology tendered by him and wondered if “they were crocodile tears or an attempt to wriggle out of the legal proceedings”.
“The entire nation was in shame due to the comments… We saw your videos….you were on the verge of using very filthy language but somehow better sense prevailed or you did not find suitable words. You should be shameful. Entire country is proud of our Army and you made this statement,” Justice Surya Kant had said and further added, “What kind of apology was this? You should have simply admitted your mistake and apologised but you say if you have said this and that…then I apologise. This is not the way to seek apology. The kind of crass comments you made, you should be shameful.”
A First Information Report (FIR) against Shah was registered after the High Court took suo motu cognisance of his statement against Colonel Sofia Qureshi and ordered for registration of FIR against him on the charge of promoting enmity and hatred for passing “scurrilous” remarks and using “language of the gutters” against Colonel Sofia Qureshi.
