Congress leader Pawan Khera was on Thursday arrested from the IGI Airport in New Delhi by officials of the Assam Police just hours after he was stopped from boarding a flight to Raipur, and was given interim bail by the Supreme Court.
According to the Assam Police, an FIR had been registered against Khera at the Haflong police station in Dima Hasao district. Now, he was given interim bail by the apex court until Tuesday.
Delhi Police had earlier said that Khera was stopped from boarding the flight following a request by their Assam counterparts.
"Delhi Police was approached to arrest Khera and the Assam Police officials will bring him to Assam after taking permission from a local court," said the official of Assam Police.
After Khera was stopped from boarding the flight, Congress leaders and workers staged a protest at the airport. CISF personnel have been deployed to handle the situation.
Khera, en route to Raipur for the party plenary starting on Friday, was accompanied by Randeep Surjewala and Shakeel Ahmed.
Condemning the move, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinet said in a series of tweets: "While going from Delhi to Raipur to attend the Congress session, senior Congress leader Mr. Pawan Khera was taken off the flight by the Assam Police. What was the emergency that the Assam Police came to Delhi and did this act? Earlier ED raids in Raipur and now such act shows BJP's fury. This is condemnable.
"We are all on the @IndiGo6E flight 6E 204 to Raipur and all of a sudden my colleague Pawan Khera has been asked to deplane What sort of high handedness is this? Is there any rule of law? On what grounds is this being done and under whose order?"
The Congress has alleged that this was an attempt to disrupt the plenary similar to the ED raids in Chhattisgarh on Monday.
Two days ago, Khera had allegedly insulted PM Narendra Modi while taking out his father's name that has triggered several FIRs being filed across the country. Congress leader Supriya Shrinate described the deplaning act as a vendetta over a "slip of tongue" duing the press conference.
(With inputs from IANS)
