Mumbai: The Bombay High Court granted transit anticipatory bail to journalist Rana Ayyub for a period of four weeks in connection with an FIR registered against her by the Uttar Pradesh police for allegedly circulating a video in which an elderly Muslim man said he was thrashed and asked to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
According to details, the police in the FIR claimed the video was circulated to create communal unrest. The FIR was registered at the Loni Border police station at Ghaziabad in UP on June 15 under IPC Sections 153 (giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between groups on ground of religion, class etc), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feels of any class by insulting its religion or religious belief) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Ayyub’s counsel Mihir Desai told a single bench of Justice PD Naik that the applicant was a journalist who had just forwarded the video from her Twitter handle.
He further said the offences under which Ayyub has been booked are all punishable only up to three years in jail and hence, she should be given time to approach the court concerned in Uttar Pradesh to seek relief.
Apart from Ayyub, the FIR names Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications India, news website ‘The Wire’, journalist Mohammed Zubair, Congress leaders Shama Mohamed, Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani and writer Saba Naqvi.
As per the FIR, the accused persons shared the video online with a communal angle with an intention to disrupt public peace and create a divide between two religious groups.
In the video clip, which surfaced on social media on June 14, the man, identified as Abdul Shamad Saifi, was heard saying he was thrashed by some young men and asked to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. The video also shows that attackers are cutting his beard. Web Desk
