Coming to the rescue of a man, the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court quashed a police complaint lodged against him for allegedly hurting sentiments of a community by circulating a Facebook post. He was, however, directed to grant compensation of ₹20,000 to Gadchandur Police Station in Chandrapur district for wasting their time in investigation by depositing the amount into Police Welfare Fund.
Petitioner Chotulal Yadav circulated a post made by an unknown person against former MP Tariq Anwar over leaving NCP. It was uploaded after NCP supremo Sharad Pawar came in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafael fighter jet deal on September 27, 2018, after which Anwar left the party.
“On prima facie analysis of the post, it could be said that it was singularly addressed to Anwar being a Muslim. It clearly indicates that it was not attributed to the community at large. Besides, one more aspect which has paramount relevance vis-a-vis intention of the accused is that this post was already available in public domain. He is not the author of that post, but simply circulated it to the other group members,” a division bench comprising justices Atul Chandurkar and GA Sanap said.
The complainant had received the post on September 28, 2018, and he lodged FIR with Gadchandur police station alleging that it was meant to hurt the sentiments of his community. The petitioner was booked under Section 505(2) of the IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
The 39-year-old businessman challenged the verdict through counsel AS Ambatkar in HC contending that he had not committed any offence. Tendering an apology for his mistake, the petitioner contended that he was not even author of the post and simply forwarded it without reading its contents. Praying for quashing of FIR, the petitioner said he never intended to create a tension or enmity between two communities.
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Later, the complainant informed HC that the petitioner had apologized to him and their dispute was sorted out and he wanted to withdraw his complaint.
“There is a reference to names of three persons in the FB post. The statement alleged to have been attributed to the community at large cannot be made out from it. In order to involve a community, the communication must clearly indicate the plurality. The aspect of plurality involving entire community is totally missing. The post’s perusal would show that while attributing a particular act to Anwar in the context of remaining two persons, the reference of ‘Muslim’ was singularly co-related with him,” the judges said.
The HC added that prima facie analysis of evidence relied by the prosecution would show that the intention as required to be made out or satisfied could not be attributed to the petitioner.
“We are satisfied that the basic ingredients of Section 505 (2) have not been made and the provision of Section 67 cannot be invoked in such a case. Before proceeding to deal with the aspects of quashing the FIR, it would be necessary to state that on analysis of the FB post, we are satisfied that it does not contain any material which could be termed as rumour or alarming news,” the justices said.
High Court Observation
* FB post was singularly addressed to Tariq Anwar
* It clearly indicates that it was not attributed to a community at large
* This post was already available in public domain
* He is not post’s author but circulated it to other group members
* It does not contain any material which could be termed as rumour/alarming news
Read Judgement Here:
Social media is bold.
Social media is young.
Social media raises questions.
Social media is not satisfied with an answer.
Social media looks at the big picture.
Social media is interested in every detail.
social media is curious.
Social media is free.
Social media is irreplaceable.
But never irrelevant.
Social media is you.
(With input from news agency language)
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