May 19, 2025 – The Supreme Court has directed the formation of a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the FIR that has been filed against Kunwar Vijay Shah, Tribal Welfare Minister of Madhya Pradesh, for his comments on Colonel Sofiya Qureshi.

The Court instructed that the SIT team should be formed by 10:00 am tomorrow, May 20. The conditions set by the Court are that SIT must be headed by an IPS officer of Inspector General rank and the other two members must be of SP rank. None of the members of the SIT should belong to the State and that one of them must be a woman.

The Supreme Court has directed that SIT submit its findings with a status report to it. It has fixed May 28 as the next hearing date for the case.

The country’s top Court also questioned the MP government as to why it had not taken any initiative so far to register an FIR against the Minister as directed by the MP High Court.

The Bench, comprising of Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice Surya Kant, slammed the Minister for tendering an apology calling it “insincere” and “nothing more than crocodile tears”, adding “This is not just about a Minister crossing the line; it is about the dignity of the Armed Forces and the fabric of our civil-military respect. We will not allow this to become a free-for-all.”

“You seemed to be in the video on the verge of uttering some very filthy, abusive words, but either better sense prevailed for you or you probably did not get the right word and you stopped... Instead of leading by example, you, a public figure and a politician of experience do this most unfortunate thing,” Justice Kant told Shah’s counsels senior advocates Maninder Singh and Vibha Dutta Makhija.

Readers may recall that Shah had, on May 12, at a public event in Raikunda village in Indore, made indirect comments at Colonel Sofiya Qureshi which were widely perceived as derogatory, communal and gendered. In reference to Operation Sindoor, the BJP Minister had claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “sent their (terrorists’) sister aboard a military aircraft to retaliation against those responsible."

The remarks were veiled, indirect comments at Colonel Qureshi and did not go down well with people across the nation. The MP High Court had directed the State administration to file an FIR against the Minister immediately.

Colonel Qureshi used to appear at regular national media breifings on Operation Sindoor alongside Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh.