Two Co-Accused In Munawar Farooqui Case Granted Bail

OVERVIEW

On January 1^st, 2021, Munawar Farooqui and five of his associates were arrested on complaints made by Eklavya Singh Gaud, son of local BJP MLA Malini Laxman Singh Gaud.

It was alleged that disrespect was shown towards Hindu deities and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during a comedy show which they were a part of. The complaint was registered at Police Station Tukoganj, Indore for the offences punishable under Sections 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings) and 298 (Uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings), of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

The Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court granted interim bail to 2 co-accused, Sadaqat Khan and Nalin Yadav in a single bench comprising Justice Rohit Arya, on the condition that they will not indulge in any activity subversive to public order.

BACKGROUND 

Comedian Munawar Farooqui and five others were arrested from his show on January 1^st, 2021 because of allegedly insulting Hindu deities thereby hurting religious sentiments and charges under Section 295A and Section 298 of the Indian Penal Code were pressed against him.

The case gained controversial mileage when the police confirmed that they had no evidence whatsoever to support the claim of his hurting religious sentiments on stage. Also, the audience present in the club reportedly claimed that the Comedian and his co-accused were arrested even before Farooqui went up on stage to perform.

On the 5^th of February, 2021, Farooqui was granted an ad-interim bail by the Supreme court by a three – Judges Bench, led by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman  who observed that the charges against the comedian were arbitrary and the Police had not complied with Section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) pertaining to this arrest.

Out of the 5 co-accused, one was a juvenile offender, so he was granted bail almost immediately.

Among the others two of the co-accused, Prakhar Vyas and Adwin Anthony were granted bail after the bail of the comedian on February 12, 2021.

A single bench comprising Justice Rohit Arya, the same bench which granted bail to the 2 co-accused earlier gave the relief to Sadaqat Khan (23) and Nalim Yadav (25) based on parity after their plea referred to the Supreme Court order of February 5 granting bail to the 32-year-old comedian. 

FURTHER DETAILS 

The Indore Superintendent of Police, Mr. Vijay Khatri, went on record in relation to the arrest and said that it did not matter if the Muslim comedian had actually said the jokes hurting Hindu religious sentiments. He went on to say that the complainant had overheard the practice and it was a very prompt and correct action on his part to have anticipated the problem before it actually took place so the offenders could be reprimanded.

In State of Rajasthan, Jaipur v. Balchand, Justice VR Krishna Iyer observed that “the basic rule of our criminal justice system is bail, not jail”. Though this is a well-established principle, the High Court's order seems to be more inclined toward 'jail, not bail’ as the principle whilst the Madhya Pradesh High Court denied bail to the accused in the case of Munawar Farooqui. 

CONCLUSION 

It was a totally vague case no real evidence that had been lodged against the Comedian and the five co-accused. The charges were totally arbitrary with no evidence to support them.

It was a very uncanny incident when the accused and five co-accused were arrested for the jokes or statements hurting religious and political statements which they did not even say in public. The case was based on the assumption of the complainant. The people were not only arrested but were also detained for more than a month because of their bail petitions having been rejected by the Indore District Court twice. 

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION REGARDING THE ARREST AND DENIAL OF BAIL PETITIONS? DO YOU THINK THEIR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO SPEECH HAD BEEN CURBED BY SUCH A COMPLAINT WITHOUT EVIDENCE? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!