Kunal Kamra-Shinde row |Bombay High Court grants temporary protection to comedian from arrest

Mumbai: In what comes as an interim relief to comedian Kunal Kamra, the Bombay High Court said that the stand up comedian should not be arrested till it passes orders on the plea to quash the FIR against him for the ‘gaddar’ jibe aimed at Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief leader.

The order came from a division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Sarang Kotwal and Justice SM Modak, which was hearing the plea filed by Kamra seeking quashing of the FIR registered by the Mumbai Police.

Kamra was represented by Senior Counsel Navorze Seervai.

During this submission, Seervai referred to the Supreme Court's judgment in the Imran Pratapgarhi case, which criticised the Gujarat Police for lodging a case against the Congress leader over a poem he had recited.

The court has reserved its final order in the quashing of the FIR.

Kamra, a resident of Tamil Nadu, last month got interim transit anticipatory bail from the Madras High Court in the case which ended on Wednesday, however, now he has protection from the Bombay High Court.

Shiv Sena MLA Murji Patel has filed the complaint with the MIDC police station, which registered an FIR. Two FIRs registered against the comedian at Nashik Rural and Jalgaon have also been transferred to the Khar police along with the MIDC police station FIR.