Allahabad HC Refuses to Quash Case Against Two Over Facebook Post on RSS, Modi

New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has refused to quash the criminal prosecution against two men who were alleged to have posted "anti-national" and objectionable posts against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Justice Saurabh Srivastava rejected the petition moved by the accused, Jubair Ansari and Izahar Alam, for quashing the case and the chargesheet filed by the Uttar Pradesh Police last year. 

The court observed in its April 29 order that the applicants’ posts on Facebook amounted to a “deliberate and malicious attempt” to outrage religious feelings and that the allegations, prima facie, stand corroborated because the trial court has taken cognisance of the offences invoked by the police. 

The court highlighted that the RSS was an organisation that has been “rendering its services to the various sections of society” for the last 100 years, and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected by the majority of the country’s citizens.

"Through the post initiated by the applicant over Facebook amounted to a “deliberate and malicious attempt” to outrage religious feelings. “...on the face of it, the conduct of the applicant in depicting the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh(RSS), which is a organisation rendering its services to the various sections of society with its allied organisation for last 100 years, along with the Prime Minister of this country who is indirectly elected by the majority of citizen of our country who invoked their right to vote for a particular political party," Justice Srivastava said, as quoted by Bar and Bench.

Ansari and others had approached the high court seeking to quash the case lodged against them in Sonbhadra district last year under Sections 353(2) (spreading false news or rumours encouraging violence/hatred based on religion), 196(1)(a) (promoting enmity based on religion), 3(5) (acts done with common intention), 352 (provoking breach of peace) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Flagging one of the initial cases social media misuse, the court said, "In 2012, one of the early cases of misuse of social media came to the government’s attention, when morphed pictures and videos of earthquake victims began to go viral on the social media. Miscreants were morphing these images to show that these women were Muslim victims of civil riots in Assam and Burma. This was done to provoke further riots by vested interest and it did bring a reaction."

"Accessing the internet has become so easy these days that it is difficult to draw the line of restriction," it added.

Considering the material on record, the Court observed, it cannot rule out that an offence was made. "The assertions of false implication raised by the applicants are factual issues that require proper adjudication by the trial court based on evidence and cannot be conclusively determined in proceedings under Section 528 BNSS," the judge said, dismissing the plea.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.