SC relief for Nupur Sharma, gets interim protection from arrest till August 10

Supreme Court on Tuesday granted former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma interim relief from arrest or coercive action in connection with cases lodged against her for controversial comments made against the Prophet. The next date of hearing has been set for August 10.Citing "renewed" threats after the Supreme Court's "unexpected and strong criticism" of her, suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma approached the court to halt her possible arrest and club nine cases filed across India over her comments on Prophet Mohammed.

Sharma had made her controversial comments about the Prophet and Islam while representing the ruling party on a TV show two months ago. As it led to a diplomatic row besides protests in India, the BJP suspended her. Two persons have since been killed for supporting her.  In her earlier plea, too, she'd requested the Supreme Court to club all other FIRs with the one in Delhi, but the court said, among other things, that she was "single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country”. She then withdrew that plea. The judges' observations were not part of the final order, though — a fact that may help her case as she seeks some relief again. Also, the number of FIRs has since gone up by three.At least fifteen ex-judges, besides former bureaucrats and retired officers of the armed forces, said that some of the observations were a “virtual exoneration of the dastardliest beheading at Udaipur”. A tailor named Kanhaiya Lal was murdered in Rajasthan's Udaipur last month by two men over his social media posts supporting Nupur Sharma. A similar killing took place in Maharashtra's Amravati.