New Delhi: The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court on Monday reserved its order in a bail plea filed by comedian Munawar Faruqui, who has been under arrest since January 2.
According to LiveLaw, the single-judge bench of Justice Rohit Arya observed at the outset, “But why you take undue advantage of other’s religious sentiments and emotions. What is wrong with your mindset? How can you do this for the purpose of your business?”
While the comedian was arrested for making alleged comments that hurt religious sentiments, police later admitted that Faruqui had not made any statements. His arrest, police say, was based on “oral evidence” given by the son of a BJP MLA, who claimed to have “overheard” Faruqui rehearsing jokes that he was “going to” say in his act.
The bench expressed a disinclination towards entertaining the application, according to LiveLaw and asked Faruqui’s advocate Vivek Tankha if he wanted to withdraw the bail application. However, the lawyer argued that his client had not committed any offence and bail should be granted.
Some intervenors, however, pointed to several posts made by Faruqui on social media in which he allegedly made derogatory statements about Hindu gods. The intervenors also pointed out that these posts were over 18 months old.
Another lawyer also accused Faruqui of making “objectionable statements” against Ram and Sita, according to LiveLaw.
“Such people must not be spared. I will reserve the order on merits”, Justice Rohit Arya observed
The judge asked those objecting to the bail application to file supporting evidence and reserved his order. The judge also reserved orders in the bail application of a co-accused, Nalin Yadav.
The other arrested persons were identified as Edwin Anthony, Prakhar Vyas and Priyam Vyas.