Anticipatory bail by the Karnataka HC to public servant for a post on social media comparing COVID-19 to the Quran

Anticipatory bail by the Karnataka HC to public servant for a post on social media comparing COVID-19 to the Quran

After the review of allegations on the accused/petitioner Kusumadhara Kaniyoor, a 32-year-old man who in April during the lockdown period had posted a message on his Facebook account comparing COVID with the holy Quran.

Karnataka HC adjudged by a single judge bench of Justice K Natarajan granted an anticipatory bail after coming to the consensus that the posted content had no evidence of petitioner showing any sort of communal discord.

The post mentioned was read as follows – “Quran is danger than corona to India due to Hubli incident” and was said to inflict lot of disharmony and agitation amongst the masses for post as it promoted communal acrimony and caused hurt to the Muslim community.

 The complaint was raised by Mahammed Saheer, the Bellare police registered a case under Sections 153A and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Kaniyoor. On behalf of petitioner Advocate Sachin BS argued and pleaded that his party was innocent & false allegations had been registered against him under Section 153A and 505(2) of the IPC as the ingredients of the case were not relevant to the same.

Countering arguments government pleader said that the post inflicted communal tension which would be punishable under Sections 153A and 505(2) of the IPC and was added that granting bail would give an easy chance of abscondance to the person.

Later the order by Justice K Natarajan was reads as – “…at this stage, it cannot be said that, there is prima-facie case made out against the petitioner for having committed any alleged offence, where it promotes the communal violence or tension between two groups of society. The alleged offences are not punishable with death or imprisonment for life.

Therefore, considering the facts and circumstances of the case, if bail is granted by imposing certain conditions, no prejudice would be caused to the case of the prosecution.” Thus the Court mentioned no merits in the opposition’s case and proceeded to grant pre-arrest bail to Kaniyoor subject to some conditions.

Nischay Pokhriyal

Anticipatory bail by the Karnataka HC to public servant for a post on social media comparing COVID-19 to the Quran