The city civil and sessions court on Saturday rejected the bail application of Naveen P., who was arrested by the D.J. Halli police for putting up a derogatory Facebook post insulting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), which led to massive protests and violence, resulting in the killing of three young men in police firing and the arrests of hundreds of others.
Objecting to the bail, Public Prosecutor P. Prasanna Kumar said that the Facebook post by Naveen created havoc and unrest. “Granting bail to the accused will hamper the ongoing investigation. Moreover, the accused is the nephew of an MLA and the object of the offence is serious in nature,” he said.
“There have been 67 FIRs registered for the violence. Naveen also has six criminal cases against him prior to this case,” he added.
Naveen P., 35, is the nephew of Pulikeshinagar MLA R Akhanda Srinivasamurthy. He has been booked under IPC sections 154A (promoting enmity between two different groups on the ground of religion, race, language etc.) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class) and also section 67 (punishment for publishing of material containing sexually explicit act) of the IT Act. They prescribe less than 5 years of imprisonment if found guilty.
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Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
