New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh high court has denied bail to a Congress leader in a case registered against him for asking people to be prepared to “kill Modi”, with the judge observing that public leaders should be vigilant about the words they use in speeches.Raja Pateria, the Congress leader, was arrested on December 13, 2022 for a speech in which he said:“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.”According to LiveLaw, he was denied bail by the high court on Wednesday. A bench of Justice Sanjay Dwivedi noted:“Oftentimes, it is noticed that it has become a fashion of some public leaders to seek the popularity of the followers without caring for the consequence of deliverance. This practice is not only belittling the image of public leaders in the society but also becoming a cause of an increase in criminality in the politics.”According to the report, lawyer Shashank Shekhar – appearing for Pateria – argued that the prosecution had “given a false colour to the incident by manipulating the video-clip”, just to bring home the charge against the applicant.However, the government’s lawyer argued that Pateria “eloquently made a speech using words to provoke other persons of minorities, castigating the image and conspiring the murder of the Prime Minister”, according to LiveLaw.The court, after taking into account the submissions of both parties, said at the outset that the sanctity of video-clip “cannot be tested at this stage” and “treating the same to be true would not be proper for consideration at the stage of bail”.Observing that “there was no occasion for Pateria, who is a public leader”, to use such “derogatory language” for the prime minister of the country and abetting the mob to commit a crime, the court denied him bail.At the time Pateria made the comment, the Congress had denounced his statement. “Absolutely reprehensible! No such words should be used against the prime minister or against anyone. The Congress party denounces and condemns such statements,” AICC head of media and publicity department Pawan Khera said when asked about it.Pateria had claimed that he meant to “defeat” Modi in the elections but his remarks were “wrongly presented”. “A video related to a mandal meeting yesterday at Pawai has surfaced. I am a follower of Mahatma Gandhi who can’t talk about killing anyone. It was wrongly presented. I wanted to say defeat Modi to protect the constitution, Dalits, tribals and minorities and also to remove unemployment,” he said.