"Unheard of:" Bombay High Court deprecated Maharashtra government for keeping a 21-year-old student Nikhil Bhamre in jail for a social media post that did not even name NCP Chief Sharad Pawar
On June 13, the Bombay High Court instructed the Chief Public Prosecutor (PP) of Maharashtra Aruna Pai to take instructions from the State Home Ministry and submit a no-objection statement over the release of 22-years-old pharmacy student Nikhil Bhamare from Nashik.
At least six First Investigation Reports (FIR) were filed against Bhamare for alleged derogatory social media posts on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.
Bhamare had posted a tweet in May, following which complaints were filed against him, and he was arrested and as a result, had to miss his exams.
Bhamare was booked under Sections Sections 153, 153A, (Promoting enmity between groups) 500, 501 (defamation), 504 (criminal intimidation), 505, 506 (statements leading to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
On Monday, a two-judge bench comprising Justice SS Shinde and Justice MN Jadhav heard the petition filed by Subhash Jha, Bhamare’s advocate, seeking the quashing of FIRs. Bhamare sought release from the custody as an interim measure. During the hearing, Justice Shinde observed that no name was mentioned in the FIR, but Bhamare has been in prison for over a month. He said, “Nobody is named on page 48 (which included the primary tweet by Bhamre) and to keep someone in prison for a month. How is this the basis of everything? What gave rise to the FIR as per page 48?”
In his argument, Advocate Jha pointed out that the first FIR against Bhamare was registered in Thane at Naupada Police Station. Justice Shinde remarked, “Some student is kept in custody like this. Even the towering personality will not like that such a student is kept in jail.” Notably, Justice Shinde had refused to grant bail to Republic’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami when he was arrested by the Mumbai police over a reopened case.
When Pai tried to explain to the court that the investigation had led to Bhamare, Justice Shinde was not pleased with the argument. He said, “[It] does not matter. What will happen if you take action like this, you are unnecessarily undermining the image of the person (Sharad Pawar) who has received the second-highest civilian award.” The Government of India awarded Pawar with Padma Vibhushan in 2017.
Pai further tried to argue that Bhamare had antecedents, but Justice Shinde refused to hear it. He said, “You take instructions. Talk to the home secretary and make a statement that you are not opposing his release from custody. People at the highest position are perhaps not aware of what is going on. Where are there allegations? There are hundreds and thousands of tweets every day. Will you take cognizance of each tweet?”
Apart from Bhamare, Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale was also booked and arrested for allegedly posting derogatory remarks against Pawar. She has spent over a month in jail.
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Bombay High Court irked at arrest of student over tweet against Sharad Pawar
A bench of Justices SS Shinde and Milind Jadhav wondered how the tweet could have been the basis for a slew of first information reports (FIRs) against Bhamre.
“There are hundreds and thousands of tweets every day. Will you take cognizance of each and every tweet? We do not want FIRs like these. …Unheard of… some student is kept in custody like this,” the Bench said.
The Court expressed its displeasure at the authorities after reading the tweets which led to the FIRs.
“Nobody is named on page 48 (which included the primary tweet by Bhamre) and to keep someone in prison for a month. How is this the basis of everything? What gave rise to the FIR as per page 48?” Justice Shinde said.
The Court was hearing a writ petition filed by Bhamre seeking quashing of the FIRs registered against him after he posted tweets from his account allegedly aimed at the veteran politician leader.
Justice Shinde said that booking the accused in the present case was possibly more damaging to the reputation of Pawar against whom the tweets were made.
“If you start taking actions like this, then you end up damaging the name of the person who has received the second-highest civilian award (Pawar). Even the towering personality (Pawar) will not like that such student being kept in jail. We do not want the towering personalities reputation should go down,” the judge opined.
Before concluding the hearing, Justice Shinde directed the public prosecutor to take instructions from the State Home Department and make a statement of no objection to releasing Bhamre from custody.
“In our humble opinion grace of the state will be saved if you come and make this statement,” the Bench said in conclusion.
The plea will be heard again on June 16.
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