New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (January 4) dismissed a plea seeking to quash criminal proceedings against Congress leader and spokesperson Pawan Khera, in connection with his alleged ‘Narendra Gautam Das Modi’ comment made in February last year.A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta was hearing a special leave petition against an order of the Allahabad high court refusing to quash the criminal proceedings against Khera over the remark.The court said it was not inclined to entertain the plea against the action initiated for the remark.On February 17, 2023, during a press conference on the Adani-Hindenburg affair, Khera had made a mistake with Modi’s name.“If Narasimha Rao could form a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee), if Atal Bihari Vajpayee could form a JPC, then what problem does Narendra Gautam Das…sorry Damodardas…Modi have?” he’d said.His lawyers had told the top court that this was a slip of the tongue and he had apologised.His remark led to multiple first information reports (FIRs) and his subsequent arrest by Assam police in the same month.Following his arrest on February 23, the Supreme Court granted temporary relief to Khera on the same day. It directed his release on interim bail till the next date of hearing. Subsequently, the interim relief period was extended first until March 3, and later again until March 17.According to LiveLaw, Khera is facing charges under Sections 153A (promoting communal enmity), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 500 (defamation), 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.In October, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Congress leader, had said that Khera had made the comment inadvertently and his prompt apology was issued in a separate post on X (formerly Twitter). He also argued that the charges levelled against Khera, which include that of defamation, attempting to degrade and destablise the nation, promoting enmity and hatred between different groups, and disturbing public peace were a ‘complete stretch’.Khera had also approached the Allahabad high court seeking the quashing of the summons order and chargesheet filed against him. He also issued an unconditional apology for the purported incident, the report said.However, the high court had previously refused to quash the proceedings.