New Delhi: The Supreme Court today restrained, until further orders, the West Bengal Police from arresting radio jockey Jonathan Brady alias Nitin, whose comments on "Indian Idol" Prashant Tamang sparked violence in Silguri recently.

A Bench of Justices P P Naolekar and L S Panta asked the state police not to arrest the Delhi-based jockey till the matter was disposed off and directed it to file its response on the issue.

The apex court passed the order on the special leave petition filed by Brady challenging the rejection of his plea for anticipatory bail by the Calcutta High Court.

Brady had allegedly made some derogatory comments against Tamang on September 24 during a programme of an FM channel aired in Delhi, which enraged the Nepalese community in Darjeeling district from where the Indian idol hails.

The jockey has been accused of inciting violence under section 153A of IPC. After a Darjeeling court issued an NBW against him, Brady had unsuccessfully approached the High Court for anticipatory bail on the plea that he had never made the statements being attributed to him.

The town was turned into a virtual battleground with thousands of people taking to streets. The Army had to be called in to restore normalcy.

Source : PTI