The Supreme Court on Monday said “the entire nation is ashamed” of Madhya Pradesh minister Kunwar Vijay Shah’s controversial remarks against Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, and ordered a probe by a special investigation team of three IPS officers from outside the state.
The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh, however, stayed the BJP minister’s arrest subject to his cooperating with the police in connection with the FIR registered against him.
The court came down heavily on Shah and refused to accept his apology, saying people often shed “crocodile tears” and offer apologies to “wriggle out” of a tight situation.
Shah had alluded to Colonel Qureshi, one of the defence spokespersons during Operation Sindoor, as the “sister of terrorists” in an apparent reference to her religion.
The apex court directed BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh to constitute the SIT by 10am on Tuesday, saying it should be headed by an officer of the rank of inspector-general of police while the other two officers should not be from below the rank of superintendent of police. One of the three officers should be a woman.
“(The SIT) shall comprise of three senior, directly recruited IPS officers of the Madhya Pradesh cadre but who otherwise do not belong to the state of Madhya Pradesh,” the court order, dictated later, said.
The bench said the SIT should submit its first status report by May 28, and posted the next hearing to that date.
During the hearing, the bench refused to accept the plea from Shah’s lawyers, senior advocates Maninder Singh and Vibha Dutta Makhija Dutta, that the minister had apologised.
“What kind of apology? Sometimes people apologise to wriggle out of legal liabilities. Sometimes they shed crocodile tears. What kind of apology is yours? If you are insisting that this is your genuine regret, then it is outrightly rejected,” Justice Kant observed orally.
“You are still not ready to admit that you havehurt somebody’s feelings and sentiments. Meanwhile, you think about how you will redeem yourself. The entire nation is ashamed of your remarks. We are a country that firmly believes in the ‘ruleof law’.”
The bench noted that Shah had said he was apologising if someone was hurt by his remarks.
“The kind of crass comments you (Shah) made completely thoughtlessly… what prevented you from making a sincere attempt to apologise? We don’t require your apology. We know how to deal with it as per law,” it told Maninder Singh.
“You have said ‘if somebody is hurt’ — you are not even ready to take responsibility? We have seen the video, You are a public figure. A seasoned politician. You should weigh your words when you speak. We should display your video.…
“Media persons are not going to the depth of your video. Unfortunately, media people pick up only two or three words. You were at a stage where you were going to use abusive language,very filthy language, but either better sense prevailed on you, or you probably did not get the right word, and you stopped.”
The court was dealing with Shah’s petition challenging an order by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which had taken suo motu cognisance ofhis remarks, for the registration of an FIR against theminister.
The high court later castigated the police for their weakly worded FIR and asked them to rewrite it.
Justice Kant regretted that the state government had not acted fairly.
“The state did not act fairly. The high court had to intervene and direct re-writing of the FIR as the state did not act,” the bench told the counsel appearing for the state.
“People expect the state will act fairly. You (the state) should have done something more by now.”
At a public meeting on May 13, Shah had reportedly said: “Those people (terrorists) who had wiped out the sindoor of our sisters (at Pahalgam), we avenged them by sending one of their (terrorists’) own sisters….”
Realising he had provoked national outrage, Shah initially claimed he had been misquoted by the media. He later offered to tender an unconditional apology and swore deep respect for Colonel Qureshi and the armed forces.