The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday exonerated Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar from charges of intentionally insulting to provoke breach of peace, filed against him by a Congress leader and quashed the entire criminal proceedings initiated in the matter.

Congress leader M K Azad had filed the case against Tomar on January 9, 2016 for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Rahul Gandhi while addressing BJP workers in Dhanbad.

It was alleged in the complaint that Narendra Tomar gave a speech that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "hair of moustache" and the National Vice-President of Congress Sri Rahul Gandhi is "hair of the tail".

The Petition filed by Narendra Tomar for quashing the proceedings was allowed by a Bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi.

A criminal case was in the Dhanbad civil court by Azad, who, in his petition, said Tomar had made a statement insulting Gandhi.

The court of Dhanbad judicial magistrate had then taken note of Azad's petition and issued summons to Tomar. It subsequently issued an arrest warrant for him.

Tomar then had knocked the doors of the High Court which then passed an interim order in 2017 that no coercive steps would be taken against Tomar.

After having heard the matter at length, the High Court quashed the criminal proceedings and exonerated Tomar from all charges.

The Court quashed the order by which the Magistrate took cognizance of the offence under Section 504 of IPC.

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Jharkhand High Court

Verdictum News Desk