MP High Court lifts Abhishek Banerjee's protection from arrest in "goon" comment case

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has officially vacated the interim protection against arrest granted to All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) MP Abhishek Banerjee. A single-judge Bench, presided over by Justice Pramod Kumar Agrawal, dismissed the Diamond Harbour lawmaker's plea and lifted the stay on an outstanding arrest warrant. The legal protection, which had been active since November 2025, was stripped away during a court session due to a sudden lack of presentation from the petitioner's legal team.

The severe ruling emerged after the court noted that no legal representatives appeared to argue the case on behalf of Banerjee during both the initial calling and the subsequent pass-over rounds. Justice Agrawal observed that the absence strongly indicated the petitioner had lost all operational interest in prosecuting the matter further. Consequently, the High Court formally closed the petition for want of prosecution and authorized the immediate transmission of the order copy to the lower trial court for processing.

The underlying legal dispute stems from a criminal defamation suit filed in April 2021 by Akash Vijayvargiya, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and the son of Madhya Pradesh Cabinet Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya. The complaint targeted a political address delivered by Banerjee in Kolkata in November 2020, where he allegedly referred to the junior Vijayvargiya as a "goon". A Special MP/MLA Court in Bhopal initiated proceedings in May 2021, eventually issuing arrest warrants against the TMC leader following his repeated failures to appear physically for the trials.