SC orders SIT with mandatory woman officer to investigate Vijay Shah’s remarks on Col Sofiya Qureshi

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday castigated Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah for what it described as “filthy, crass and shameful” remarks directed at Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, the Army officer who recently briefed the press on Operation Sindoor.

Declaring that Shah’s comments had “shamed the nation”, a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh ordered the immediate creation of a three-member Special Investigation Team to handle the first information report already lodged against the minister.

Under the Court’s directions, the Director-General of Police must, by 20 May, appoint three senior Indian Police Service officers who are presently serving in Madhya Pradesh but belong to other state cadres; one of them must be a woman. The head of the team cannot be of a rank lower than Inspector-General. Once formed, the SIT will assume complete control of the investigation, examine all electronic and eyewitness evidence, and decide whether additional charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita are warranted.

Although the Bench stayed any move to arrest Shah at this stage, it compelled him to cooperate fully, surrender digital devices if requested and refrain from public statements that might prejudice the inquiry. The judges rejected the minister’s televised apology as insincere, remarking that “crocodile tears do not erase liability”, and reminded him that, as an experienced politician, he should have weighed his words before attacking a serving officer.

The controversy began on 11 May, when a video of Shah’s campaign-trail speech surfaced online and drew criticism from veterans’ groups and women-in-uniform associations. Acting on its own motion on 14 May, the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered police to register an FIR under sections 152, 196(1)(b) and 197(1)(c) of the new criminal code. When the police filed what the High Court later called a “gross subterfuge” of an FIR, the court said it would monitor the case and warned the DGP of contempt. Shah then petitioned the Supreme Court to quash the High Court’s directions, prompting Friday’s stronger intervention.

Explaining its insistence on an out-of-cadre team, the Supreme Court said independent scrutiny was needed to restore public confidence, noting signs of investigative reluctance within the state machinery. While the justices declined to oversee day-to-day progress, they directed the SIT to file a sealed status report by 28 May and left open the possibility of further orders, including contempt proceedings, should investigators falter.

Legal commentators view the ruling as an early test of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced the Indian Penal Code on 1 April. It also underscores a judicial determination that misogynistic or defamatory attacks on uniformed officers are not protected political speech. The case returns to the Court on 28 May; the SIT’s findings will decide whether Minister Vijay Shah faces formal indictment and, potentially, trial under the new code.