The Madras High Court on Friday granted conditional anticipatory bail to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary Vinoj P. Selvam in a case booked for having tweeted that Hindu faith is being suppressed in the State by demolishing 130 temples and therefore the voters must support his party in the urban local bodies polls. The court directed him to appear before the police every day until further orders.
Justice R. Pongiappan ordered that to avail the benefit of advance bail, the petitioner must first appear before the third metropolitan magistrate court at George Town, Chennai, within 15 days and execute a bond for ₹25,000 along with two sureties for a like sum either to the satisfaction of the investigating officer concerned or to the satisfaction of the magistrate on production of Aadhaar card and other documents.
Thereafter, he must appear before the Cyber Crime Unit of Central Crime Branch police in the city at 10 a.m. daily until further orders. He should not tamper with evidence or witnesses during the investigation or trial. The magistrate can take necessary steps as per law if the accused violates the advance bail conditions and if he is reported absconding, a fresh First Information report could be registered against him.
The judge agreed to grant advance bail to the petitioner since his counsel R.C. Paul Kanagaraj argued that the tweet was actually based on a news report that had appeared in a Tamil daily regarding demolition of temples in the guise of removing encroachments.
Accepting the submission, the judge wrote: “Without initiating any action against the person who published the said news, the present case has been registered against the petitioner.”
He took note that custodial interrogation of the petitioner might not be necessary since all materials had already been collected by the investigating agency.
