The writ suit submitted to the court asking for a directive to stop Pastor Jerome Fernando from being arrested has been withdrawn.
As a result, the self-styled “prophet’s” attorneys abandoned their writ action on Wednesday (21 June), asking the court to make a ruling barring Fernando from being arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Fernando requested an order barring his arrest in a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition that was submitted to the Supreme Court on May 26 through his counsel.
The respondents to the FR petition were the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the DIG in charge of the CID, the CID director, and the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the CID’s cybercrimes unit.
In his plea, the Pastor claimed that the CID’s attempts to arrest him were illegal, asserting that the police had not provided any proof to the court that his remarks endanger the country’s religious unity.
After a video of Fernando making some disparaging remarks about Lord Buddha and other holy icons during one of his sermons went viral on social media and caused a lot of uproar in the nation, Fernando found himself in hot water.
