Film director Vivek Agnihotri has tendered an unconditional apology before the Delhi High Court for his remarks alleging bias against the then Justice S Muralidhar, who granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
Vivek’s apology came after Vivek and others did not file a reply despite the court’s order and the court decided to take ex parte action against Agnihotri, Anand Ranganathan and Swarajya news portal by the high court.
A bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh adjourned the matter till March 16 after considering the affidavit. The Court said that since the matter was taken up suo motu by the Court, Vivek Agnihotri is directed to appear before the Court on the next date.
In fact, in 2018, Justice S Muralidhar granted bail to accused Gautam Navlakha in the UAPA case. Then Vivek Agnihotri accused him of being biased.
In a long tweet thread, Vivek claimed a connection between Navlakha and Justice Muralidhar when Gautam Navlakha was granted bail. Agnihotri had tweeted, “Justice Muralidhar’s wife – Usha Ramanathan – is a close friend of Gautam Navlakha.”
According to a report published in Bar & Bench, some time ago the Delhi High Court had issued a notice against Vivek Agnihotri, Anand Ranganathan and Swarajya News Portal. After this, this apology has come. Along with the apology, Vivek also deleted his tweets. Although Agnihotri said in his affidavit that he had deleted the tweets himself, but an impartial advisor told the court that this is a lie and Twitter has removed the tweets.