Mumbai, Mar 31 (PTI) A court here on Thursday granted bail to an 18-year-old student, hailing from Haryana, who was arrested for allegedly posting objectionable comments on women on an app named Clubhouse.
The accused, Akash Suyal, a Standard XII student, was arrested in January along with two others in connection with a case related to making objectionable and abusive comments against women on the social media platform.
His bail plea was allowed by the metropolitan magistrate at the suburban Bandra court, but a detailed order was not yet available.
Among other grounds, the accused had sought bail, through his lawyers Pankaj Bafna and Akshay Bafna, on parity (his co-accused are already out on bail) and citing the fact that investigation in the case has been completed.
“The co-accused persons who have been attributed similar roles in the FIR have already been released on bail by the metropolitan magistrate court. One of the main reasons for consideration of their bail was their tender age,” his plea said.
“It is shocking to note that the accused despite being the youngest among all the accused persons and whose role attributed is similar to the co-Accused has not been not granted bail,” the lawyers said in the petition.
The case has been registered against the accused under Indian Penal Code sections 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 195 (A) (threatening a person to give false evidence), 354 (A) (sexual harassment), 354 (D) (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (defamation) and also section 67 of the Information Technology Act.
Suyal and his co-accused, Jaishnav Kakkar and Yash Parashar, all residents of Haryana, were arrested in January by the Mumbai police’s cyber cell.
According to the police, the accused created `chat rooms’ on Clubhouse, an audio social media platform, and made derogatory and offensive comments about women in general and members of a community in particular during online conversations. PTI AVI RSY RSY
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.