Calcutta High Court on Monday quashed an FIR filed against actor Paresh Rawal by the CPI(M)'s West Bengal unit secretary Mohd Salim who claimed that the Padma Shri awardee had made derogatory comments against the Bengali community.

The court noted that Rawal, who had moved a petition before it seeking quashing of the FIR, has already given clarifications and tendered an apology over the speech in question. It said the speech was made in Gujarati and some of the criticisms that have been made against the speech are by persons who may not necessarily understand the language.

Considering all aspects of the case, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha quashed the FIR, observing that further continuation of the proceedings was not desirable.

Advocate Varun Chugh, counsel for Rawal, said the FIR was registered with the intention to gain political mileage with ulterior motives.

"It is evident that it is a politically motivated FIR to damage the reputation of a celebrity and public figure like my client," he said. Rawal, a former BJP MP, stated in the petition that his speech delivered in Gujarati on November 29, during a campaign for the Gujarat assembly elections last year, was misinterpreted and mistranslated for political vendetta.

He maintained that he has given clarifications on his statement and apologised on December 2, the same date when Salim filed an FIR at Taltala police station in Kolkata.

The actor came in the eye of the storm when he made a statement linking the price of gas cylinders with cooking fish for Bengalis. Rawal, in his petition, said he had later clarified that by "Bengali", he meant illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingya immigrants in India and not otherwise.

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