Prophet Row: Delhi Court Grants Bail To Bhim Sena Chief Arrested For Allegedly Calling For Violence Against Nupur Sharma

A Delhi Court has granted bail to Bhim Sena President Nawab Satpal Tanwar, arrested after he allegedly called for violence against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her alleged comments on Prophet Muhammad.

The allegations against Tanwar were that he had posted a tweet announcing a bounty of Rs. 1 Crore to "whoever cuts the tongue of Nupur Sharma" and that words used in the tweet were highly provocative and more than sufficient for detriment to maintenance of public tranquility.

It was also alleged that on an analysis of the video posted by Tanwar on social media, it was found that the same promoted enmity, hatred and ill will among Hindus and Muslims.

Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Dev Saroha of Patiala House Courts yesterday granted bail to Tanwar subject to the condition that he will fully cooperate in the investigation whenever required.

Perusing the case diary, the Court noted that the FIR was registered on June 9 under sec. 504, 506 and 509 of IPC and that sec. 153A was added one day later after analysis of the complete video.

"This is the first thing which shows the haste in which the FIR was registered as first the FIR registered and then complete video was analyzed. The IO despite being questioned has failed to answer that why was he in such a hurry to register the FIR even when he had not seen the complete video," the Court said.

Furthermore, the Court also noted that after registration of FIR, raid was conducted by the IO at Tanwar's residence in Haryana. However, when he was not found there, the IO along with the staff went to Tanwar's ancestral village and came to know that he was residing in Haryana.

According to the IO, it was submitted that Tanwar's location was found to be of Uttar Pradesh's Deoband and that on June 16, when his location was found to be of Gurugram, Haryana, he was arrested when he did cooperate with the investigation.

Questioning the conduct of IO, the Court said:

"These circumstances also raises some pertinent questions. When the IO had gone to Village Khandsa, why did he not go to to the house of the accused. He only reached the village and obtained information that the accused lives some other place."

The Court also questioned as to why the IO made no attempt to affix a notice under sec. 41A Cr.PC at the village address or at Gurugram, Haryana.

"This shows that no attempt was made to comply with judgment of Arnesh Kumar vs. State of Bihar and IO wanted to arrest the accused without the compliance of," the Court said.

The Court also noted that despite the order of Duty MM on June 17, no medical report was filed. It also noted that Tanwar's serious medical condition was admitted and the same was not questioned by the prosecution.

"Also the fact that the accused/applicant is member of Bhim Sena is not relevant as Bhim Sena is not a Banned Organization. Further, no DD entry has been found which could have shown that IO went at any of the places as stated by him," the Court said.

It was submitted on behalf of Tanwar that he was falsely implicated in this case and that after his arrest, he was subjected to third degree torture due to which he had to be admitted to the hospital.

It was also submitted that his medical was such that if he remains in custody, he would most likely die and that as per exception to sec. 437 Cr.PC, he deserved to be released on bail.

It was argued that the offence under sec. 153A of IPC is punishable with only three years of imprisonment and that no notice under sec. 41A CrPC as per guidelines of Arnesh Kumar case was given.

Accordingly, bail was given by Court subject to furnishing of a bail bond in the sum of Rs. 50,000 with one sound surety in like amount.

Advocates Pawan Kumar, Aurangzeb Khan and Mehmood Pracha appeared for Tanwar.

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