Kunal Kamra row: Bombay high court reserves order, stays arrest
The high court has also instructed the police not to arrest the comedian arested till the order is passed.
The Bombay high court on Wednesday reserved the order on Kunal Kamra's plea against the FIR in the row over his parody song targeting Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde.
The high court has also instructed the police not to arrest the comedian arrested till then.
"Arguments concluded. In the meantime, as agreed by PP that summons are under 35(3), which specifically refers that the arrest of person is not required, in that background arrest of this person does not arise. Matter reserved for orders till then petitioner shall not be arrested," the bench of justice Sarang Kotwal and justice Shriram Modak said while reserving the order, LiveLaw reported.
The Madras High Court had on April 7 extended Kamra's interim protection till April 17. He had moved to the court seeking transit anticipatory bail in connection with the FIR lodged against him in Mumbai for his ‘traitor’ jibe at Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde during a show.
The Kunal Kamra and Eknath Shinde row
In March, an FIR was filed in Mumbai after comedian Kunal Kamra took a traitor jibe at Eknath Shinde in a show recorded at 'The Habitat' in the city's Khar area. The jibe was about Shinde's rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray in 2022, in which he split the Shiv Sena and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), resulting in the fall of the MVA government.
When the recording of the show was uploaded on YouTube, Shiv Sena workers vandalised the venue. Mumbai police summoned Kamra in the case on three separate occasions, but the comedian skipped them, instead moving to the Madras high court for protection from arrest.
He also moved a petition in the Bombay high court to quash the FIR altogether, on which the order was reserved on Wednesday. While the ruling Mahayuti alliance has been critical of Kamra's joke while the opposition has backed the comedian, citing freedom of speech.
