MP Lawyer, in Jail for Sending Indecent Message to Woman Judge, Gets Bail

Indore: The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court has granted bail to a lawyer, who has been in jail for over last four months for allegedly sending an indecent message to a woman judge in Ratlam on her birthday earlier this year.

While granting bail to the lawyer – Vijay Singh Yadav – the court said that if he is found to approach the woman judge directly or indirectly or tries to stalk her, then the bail order shall stand cancelled.

A single bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar passed the order during a virtual hearing of Yadav's second bail application on June 14.

The lawyer had been booked by Ratlam police under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forging documents) and others besides relevant sections of the IT Act on a complaint lodged by a district court official. The complaint alleged that he had sent an indecent birthday wish to the woman judge on January 29 on her official email address.

As per the complaint, the lawyer had allegedly downloaded the display picture of the judge from her Facebook account and used it for fraudulently making a greeting card. He was arrested on February 9.

On April 27, the high court had dismissed his first bail application.

In the June 14 order, the high court said, "The application filed by the applicant (lawyer) is allowed, subject to the condition that if it is found that the applicant in any manner directly or indirectly tried to approach the concerned judge (the victim) and tries to stalk her in any manner, this order shall stand cancelled without further reference to the court and the police shall be entitled to arrest the applicant in the present case."

Yadav's counsel K.K. Gupta submitted that the chargesheet in the case has already been filed and his client has been in the jail since February 9.

Gupta said that his client is an advocate and there are no criminal antecedents against him. Besides, he has tendered an unconditional apology and has undertaken that he would never try to approach the concerned judge and would not practice in her court in future. Hence, it is submitted that his bail application should be allowed.

However, state's counsel Kushagra Jain opposed Yadav's bail plea in view of his conduct .

After hearing the applicant and the respondent, the court allowed Yadav's bail application on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with one solvent surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court .

Having considered the rival submissions, on perusal of the case diary including the message sent by the applicant, this court is of the considered opinion that since the charge sheet has already been filed and the applicant in jail since February 9, 2021, he has also tendered unconditional apology and the final conclusion of the trial is likely to take sufficient long time due to fresh spread of COVID-19, in the considered opinion of this court, the applicant's application deserves to be allowed, the court said.

Earlier, the high court had ordered a medical examination of Yadav to check his mental health. It had said that the accused lawyer indulged in an "unethical activity" despite being a married person with four children and that his action caused embarrassment to the woman judge.

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