The Patna High Court on February 11 granted bail to a man accused of shouting abusive slogans about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his mother during an Opposition rally in Bihar in August.
A man had been arrested on August 29, two days after the incident occurred during the INDIA bloc’s rally in Darbhanga. Videos of the incident had been widely shared on social media, drawing sharp criticism from Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and its National Democratic Alliance partners.
The incident had led to a clash between workers of the BJP and the Congress in Patna on August 30, when the Hindutva party was protesting against the slogans.
A bench of Justice Arun Kumar Jha was hearing the bail application of the man, who has been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act pertaining to promoting enmity, hatred, or disharmony between groups, uttering obscene words in public, statements conducing to public mischief, intentional insults to provoke a breach of public peace and defamation.
He was also booked for acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the country.
The name of the petitioner had come up during the investigation into the matter.
The petitioner had contended that he had been falsely implicated in the matter and that he had only been identified by a security guard on the basis of a viral video.
He contended that no offence under the Information Technology Act had been made out against him as no objectionable material had been found on his mobile phone, which had been seized by the authorities, and that he had not shared any video.
The man contended that he was being made a scapegoat.
The prosecution had opposed the bail, arguing that the petitioner’s actions were intended to cause unrest and amounted to an act of treason.
The High Court granted him bail, noting the “clean antecedent of the petitioner”, the nature of the allegations, that he had been in custody for several months and a chargesheet had been submitted.
At the time of the incident, Union minister Amit Shah said the “abusive and indecent” language used against Modi and his mother was condemnable and a “blot on democracy”.
The Congress had claimed that the slogans in abusive language were shouted by a BJP agent, ANI reported.
Pawan Khera, the party’s publicity chief, had said: “They [the BJP] just want to create an issue so that they can divert attention from our [Voter Adhikar] Yatra…Their theft has been caught, so these people are frustrated.”
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