A 22-year-old man who was arrested and sent to judicial custody for 15 days by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal West on September 21 for allegedly posting a derogatory comment on Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s Facebook page was released on bail by the Session Judge, Imphal West on Friday.
Nongmaithem Boboy Singh, son of N Saratkumar Singh of Takyel Khongbal Maning Leikai, Imphal West was arrested on September 19 for his comment ‘Modi gi thi Sengo Yenge’ which can be roughly translated to ‘clean Modi’s faeces and we will watch’.
He gave the comment to a Facebook post by the chief minister, concerning a cleanliness drive carried out as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday celebrations.
After he made the comment, Lamphel Police arrested Boboy on September 19. The police registered a case against him under Sections 505(2-b) IPC to 505 (2) IPC for intent to create enmity, hatred or ill will between different religions, racial, language or regional groups or caste or communities as per reports.
The counsel of the petitioner submitted before the Session Judge that the offence as described in the FIR is the carbon copy of the constituents of Section 505(1-b) IPC and there is no such offence as Section 505(2-b)-IPC. However, the Duty Magistrate, without applying judicial mind, remanded the accused into police custody for the offence under Section 505 (2-b) IPC which is a non-existent provision of law, the counsel stated.
It was submitted that the accused, who is a young man without any ill motive and second thoughts made the comment and deleted it as well. Pointing out that he had expressed his regret of the act, the prayer was submitted that the court may release the petitioner by considering his young age and innocence, and considering his commitment of never repeating such behaviours in the future.
The additional public prosecutor submitted that the accused has admitted his act and asserted that the post may cause hatred among the community and prayed that bail application may be rejected so as to send a strong message to the society.
The court, after examining the case records stated that the accused is a student, and he had made a distasteful comment on Facebook and mocked the chief minister with an unsavoury remark and deleted the comment later on feeling guilty. The court observed that however deprecating the comment was, it fell short of the characteristics of the offence prescribed under Section 505(2) IPC of causing hatred, enmity or ill-will between different groups of the society. As a result, there is no convincing reason for further detaining the accused in judicial custody, the court stated.
Therefore, the Session Judge, Imphal West ordered that the accused be released on bail on furnishing a PR bond of Rs 30,000 to the satisfaction of the CJM, Imphal West.
