TAKING A LENIENT VIEW

Courts are granting bail to some accused on the pretext of good behaviour or their being first-time offenders and continued incarceration being detrimental to their well being. Is this a good move?

- Adarsh Kumar

A Patiala House Court has granted bail to Aumkareshwar Thakur, a BCA student from Indore, who is accused of creating an app on GitHub where photos of Muslim women were posted alongside objectionable comments insinuating they were up for auction. The bail was granted by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma. The accused was in judicial custody since January 9, 2022.

The Court said that a charge sheet had already been filed against the accused, although the report of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) was awaited. An FIR was registered against the accused under Sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion, etc), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 295A (insulting religious beliefs), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 500 (criminal defamation) of the IPC and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

The Court said that merely because replies from different intermediaries and FSL were awaited was not a sufficient reason to deny bail to the accused as he was not in a position to influence the FSL result or replies. Furthermore, the judge said the necessity for continued incarceration was not made out in the backdrop of filing of the charge sheet.

The Court also held that the accused was a first-time offender and continued incarceration would be detrimental to his overall well-being. The accused has roots in the community and was not a flight risk. The trial would take considerable time and no fruitful purpose would be served by keeping him detained further, it said.