A 32-year-old man was granted bail on Thursday by a sessions court after being in custody for over a month-and-a-half for sharing an allegedly offensive post on social media.
The Chembur resident through his advocate told the court that he had not created the post and had only shared it unintentionally.
The matter had come to be reported to the RCF police station by another man who was on the applicant’s friend list and had come across the shared post. The complainant had found it offensive to his religious feelings and approached the police.
The police had booked the applicant under section 295(A) of the IPC - deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting its religion or religious beliefs and a section of the Information Technology Act pertaining to transmitting obscene material.
Additional Public Prosecutor Ramesh Siroya had opposed the bail plea and told the court that the man had intentionally posted the material to outrage the religious feelings of a community and that the post could have endangered public peace.
Additional Sessions Judge Milind V. Kurtadikar said in his order allowing the man’s bail plea that his custodial interrogation is over and his mobile seized. The court also noted that the objectionable post has been deleted by the cyber cell of the police.
The court further said that no doubt the post outrages religious feelings, but since it has been deleted from his Facebook account and his mobile is seized, he can be released on bail.
