Madras High Court Grants Anticipatory Bail To BJP's Prashant Umrao In FIR Over Tweets Regarding Bihar Migrant Workers In TN
The Madras High Court has granted anticipatory bail to UP BJP Spokesperson Prashant Umrao in an FIR lodged by the Tamil Nadu police against him for allegedly spreading false information on the alleged attacks against the migrant workers from Bihar in Tamil Nadu.Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan granted anticipatory bail on the condition that Umrao will file an undertaking stating that he will to tweet...
The Madras High Court has granted anticipatory bail to UP BJP Spokesperson Prashant Umrao in an FIR lodged by the Tamil Nadu police against him for allegedly spreading false information on the alleged attacks against the migrant workers from Bihar in Tamil Nadu.
Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan granted anticipatory bail on the condition that Umrao will file an undertaking stating that he will to tweet or forward any such message to promote enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc., before the jurisdictional magistrate.
Accordingly, the petitioner shall file an undertaking affidavit not to tweet or forward any such message to promote enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc., and on filing such undertaking affidavit before the concerned Jurisdictional Magistrate.
Umrao had moved for bail in the FIR registered by the Thoothukudi police under Section 153, 153A, 504 and 505 of the IPC.
Umrao had claimed that the false complaint was given against him on account of political vendetta. He had also contended that even assuming the tweets were seen by lakhs of persons, no untoward incident or group clashes have occurred between the communities of the two states and thus, the messages do not attract the ingredients for promoting enmity between groups.
He had also claimed that the tweets were originally exhibited in private news channels and that he had simply retweeted the same. However, on knowing that the news was not confirmed, he deleted the tweets.
"I do not support any discrimination on the basis of religion, race, place of birth, or language. I was made a victim because of an opposite political ideology" Umrao had later tweeted.
The state countered the bail petition by stating that the tweets were intentional and meant to incite violence and enmity. It created a panic situation among the Hindi-speaking people in Tamil Nadu and Tamil-speaking people in North India which led to a commotion Bihar on March 2nd. It was also submitted that a large scale conspiracy was involved and Umrao's custodial interrogation was necessary to unearth the truth.
Noting that the incident has caused a "sorry state of affairs", the court remarked that Umrao, being an Advocate and member of a nationwide political party, should have thought about the consequences of such tweets.
It is a sorry state of affairs that the petitioner is being an Advocate, and is actively involved in a national wide political party, he must have some responsibility over the Society. Before tweeting or forwarding the Twitter messages, he must think about the consequences of the said messages and the genuineness of the said messages.
The court, however, was inclined to grant anticipatory bail. The court also hoped that Umrao, being an advocate, will cooperate with the investigation.
The court also directed Umrao to execute a bond for One lakh rupees with two sureties and to report before the concerned police daily at 10.30 a.m., and 05.30 p.m., for a period of 15 days.
Case Title: Prashant Umrao @ Prashant Kumar Umrao v. Inspector of Police
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 96