The Madhya Pradesh high court’s Jabalpur bench lifted the interim stay on the arrest warrant issued against Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee after he repeatedly failed to appear in court in connection with a defamation case filed by former MLA Akash Vijayvargiya.At a rally in Kolkata, Banerjee allegedly referred to Akash Vijayvargiya as a ‘goonda’ (thug) in November 2020, months after Vijayvargiya allegedly hit a municipal corporation employee with a cricket bat.The single bench of justice Pramod Kumar Agrawal on Wednesday said, “No one appeared for the petitioner even in the pass over round. No one has appeared on behalf of petitioner in the first round also. It seems that petitioner has lost interest in pursuing this petition. This Court by order on November 12, 2025 has stayed the proceedings for execution of arrest warrant issued by special judge, MP/MLA, Bhopal. Accordingly, the stay granted in favour of the petitioner is also vacated.”At a rally in Kolkata, Banerjee allegedly referred to Akash Vijayvargiya as a ‘goonda’ (thug) in November 2020, months after Vijayvargiya allegedly hit a municipal corporation employee with a cricket bat.Terming the remark defamatory and damaging to his reputation, Akash filed a complaint in the Bhopal MP-MLA court in 2021.The Bhopal MP-MLA court had issued an arrest warrant against Abhishek Banerjee following his failure to appear before the court. He had challenged the lower court’s order regarding the warrant in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. In the High Court, he argued that, as an elected Member of Parliament, there was no risk of him absconding. Based on these arguments, the High Court had initially granted an interim stay on the arrest warrant.