Ahmedabad, Jan. 30 (PTI): A trial court in Gandhinagar has rejected the bail plea of Omar Siddiqui, arrested for allegedly sending a “threatening” email to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Omar was arrested on January 27 from his residence in New Delhi. Yesterday, Modi himself pardoned the BPO employee.

Advocate M.I. Laliwala, representing Omar, said: “The public prosecutor in this case has still no official word regarding the chief minister’s pardon.” The court, therefore, went by the merits of the case, the advocate said, and stated that the accused was an outsider (not from Gujarat) and the case against him was a serious one.

State intelligence bureau chief J. Mahapatra said: “Though the chief minister has pardoned Omar, the police do not have any powers to withdraw the case. So we chargesheeted him today in the court.”

“Now it is on the public prosecutor to put in a word before the court that the chief minister has pardoned him and the state government was in favour of withdrawing the case,” Mahapatra added.