The Supreme Court in the case Tejashwi Prasad Yadav v. Hareshbhai Pranshankar Mehta observed and has quashed the complaint of criminal defamation filed against the former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav over alleged ‘Gujarati hi thag hai ho sakta hai, only Gujaratis can be cheats’ remark made by him during a media address.
The bench comprising of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan in the case was dealing with the transfer petition filed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal, RJD leader under section 406 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, CrPC wherein it seeks transfer of the criminal defamation complaint from Ahmedabad to Delhi or any other neutral venue.
In the present case, the complaint was filed by Haresh Mehta, the vice-president of All India Anti-Corruption and Crime Preventive Council (Gujarat State), a voluntary organization based in Ahmedabad as stated under Section 499 and Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code, IPC.
The Supreme Court in the case observed and has issued the notice in November 06, 2023 and the court further stayed the proceedings in the case.
Therefore, the affidavit has been filed by Yadav withdrawing his remarks, leading the Court to ask the complainant if there was anything left in the case.
The court in the case observed that in order to the initial affidavit filed by Yadav, the complainant raised an objection that the withdrawal of the impugned statement was not clear.
However, it being the case of him that Yadav’s remarks were meant to harm the entire Gujarati community and he was not satisfied with the affidavit in its initial form.
Further, the court asked Yadav to file a fresh affidavit within a week withdrawing his statements.
The case arose out of the following remarks said to have been made by Yadav in the year 2022,
‘Jo do thag hai naa, jo thag hai, thagi ko jo anumati hai, aaj ke desh ke halat mein dekha jayein toh sirf Gujarati hi thag ho sakte hai aur uske thag ko maaf kiya jaayega. LIC ka paisa, bank ka paisa de do, fir vo log leke bhaag jaayenge, toh kaun jimmevar hoga. Thus, two cheats that are there, the permission given to cheats, if the situation in the country is seen today, the only Gujaratis can be cheats and their cheating will be forgiven. They will be given LIC’s money, banks’ money and they will run away with it. Who will be held responsible?
Accordingly, the court reserved the order.
The counsel, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal; Advocates Varun Jain, Navin Kumar, Akhilesh Singh Rawat, Aparajita Jamwal and Radhika Goyal appeared for the Petitioner i.e., Yadav.