Cong Leader Sent to 14 Days of Judicial Custody Over Alleged Remarks Against PM Modi

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress vice president and former Technical Education Minister Raja Pateria on Tuesday was sent to 14 days of judicial custody by Pawai SDM Court. Pateria is in the eye of controversy for his alleged 'objectionable remark' on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This came at a time when the Congress party sent him a 'show cause notice' for his indisciplined remark and demanded an explanation for his comment within three days or face suspension.

In a meeting of Congress' Mandalam workers at Panna district's Pawai circuit house on Sunday, Pateria said, “Any pressure from the government or administration needs to be resisted. I have known him (district Congress chief) since he was the president of the Youth Congress. If he has taken your guarantee, he will not back down. I am repeating what I had said yesterday, that Modi will end the elections. Modi will divide on the basis of religion, caste and language. The future of Dalits, tribals and minorities is in danger. If you want to save the Constitution, then be ready to 'kill Modi'. Kill in the sense of defeating him.

Speaking to NewsClick, his legal counsellor Hateram Sharma said, "Police presented him at Pawai SDM Court hours after the arrest which sent him to 14 days of judicial custody refusing the bail plea. He has been sent to jail afterwards."

The advocate further said, "I have put up a bail application at ADJ Court which is under review."

Pateria, who was booked under sections 451 (house trespass), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, 505 (1)(b) (making statement which is likely to cause fear or alarm to the public), 505 (1)(c) (making a statement which is likely to incite any class of persons to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the complaint of a Public Works Department sub-engineer Sanjay Khare at Pawai police station.

In a media statement after his arrest, State Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that sections 115 (abetment of an offence punishable with death or life imprisonment) and 117 (abetting commission of an offence by the public or by more than ten persons) of the IPC have been added to the FIR lodged against Pateria.

Two-time MLA from Hatta assembly seat, Pateria served as technical education, medical education, and Information Technology minister in Digvijay Singh-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh from 1998 to 2003. He also contested the 2009 and 2014 parliamentary elections from the Khajuraho seat on Congress' ticket and remained runner-up both times. He came to Congress from Samajwadi Party.

Pateria, who was arrested from his residence in Hatta tehsil of Damoh by Panna police told his supporters outside the Court, “I said nothing wrong, I am a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. The BJP and media are presenting my comment out of proportion. I didn't mean to literally kill the PM but to defeat him in the elections. It was about defeating the supporters of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin."

This is not the first time he has made a controversial statement in a gathering, in a recent interview with a news channel, when asked if more Congress MLAs could defect to the BJP in the 2023 assembly elections, Pateria replied, “One cannot trust his wife these days, they are still MLAs.”

When cornered by the BJP over Pateria's remark, State Congress president Kamal Nath said, "He condemned the party leader’s statement if he said something like that and I wish for the long life of PM Modi."

His statement and subsequent arrest triggered a war of words between the BJP and Congress. Leaders of both parties are mudslinging one another in media statements and on Twitter. 

During the entire controversy, a state Congress functionary Piyush Bible pointed out on Twitter, "When Raja Pateria made objectionable remarks on PM Modi, he was sent to jail, the party gave him to show cause suspension notice. But when BJP's Bhopal MP Sadhi Pragya passed a derogatory remark against Mahatma Gandhi, justice remained within Man ke Adalat. No notice, no arrest. That is the difference between Congress and the BJP."