Allahabad High Court Grants Anticipatory Bail to Satirist Dr. Medusa

New Delhi: The Allahabad high court on Monday (June 9) granted interim anticipatory bail to Madri Kakoti, who is popularly known as the satirist Dr. Medusa over her social media posts about the Pahalgam terror attack.

Justice Rajiv Singh granted relief to Kakoti, who is an assistant professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Lucknow, reported Bar and Bench.

Earlier, an FIR had been filed against Kakoti based on the complaint of one Jatin Shukla, a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The FIR was registered at Lucknow’s Hasanganj police station. The complainant had alleged that Kakoti’s recent posts would disrupt peace and harmony in the country.

Following the Pahalgam terror attack Kakoti had posted a video wherein she spoke about the lack of unity in India on religious grounds and demands safety for Kashmiris across the country.

In Hindi, she says given how divided the country is on religious and other lines, it will “not take even a second to incite riots”. Calling for the protection of the Kashmiri people living outside Kashmir, she called for justice, not revenge.

Kakoti was booked under various sub-sections of Sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 197 (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) 353 (statements conducing to public mischief), 302 (uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of any person) and 152 (acts endangering sovereignty unity and integrity of India) of the BNS, as well as Section 69a of the Information Technology Act.

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