Subsequently, a Mumbai court granted the man bail (archive)
New Delhi:
On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to accept a request for bail from a man who was arrested last month in Gujarat for posting allegedly objectionable comments in tweets against Maharashtra’s chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray, and his minister son, Aaditya. Thackeray.
A bank of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian asked Sameer Thakkar’s lawyer to address the Bombay High Court with the guilty plea, saying that he can also defend his fundamental rights.
“The Superior Court can also uphold your fundamental rights. It can also transfer the case and grant you bail. So why is he under 32 years old?
“Please go to the High Court,” the court told lead attorney Mahesh Jethmalani, who was appearing on behalf of Thakkar.
Mr. Jethmalani said that Mr. Thakkar was arrested for “bail crimes” and this “will shock your honorable Members”.
“We are quite immune to shock. We see it every day. Nothing shocks us,” observed the bank and asked him to approach the Superior Court.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra lawyer said the state will not object to the defendant’s bail declaration in court on Monday, as the custody questioning of Mr. Thakkar had ended in the case.
Later, a court in Mumbai granted him bail.
Jethmalani said up to three FIRs had come forward against Thakkar just because of his tweets and that he was arrested on October 24 in Rajkot.
He was then taken to Nagpur in pre-trial detention and questioned in police custody for his tweets and furthermore his custody was also extended.
“His neck was tied with a rope and they paraded him on the roads,” said the lead attorney.
“What makes you think that we are approving all of this? We are just repeatedly telling you that you can present these arguments to the Superior Court. Let us have the opinion of the Superior Court,” the court said.
Mr. Jethmalani then withdrew the plea from Mr. Thakkar, who in addition to requesting bail, had sought the consolidation of three FIRs registered against him for the positions.
Thakkar, who has 59,000 followers on Twitter and is followed by some prominent government officials on the social media platform, was arrested in Rajkot on October 24 for his posts.
In one case, a Nagpur court granted him bail and he was arrested by the Maharashtra police in connection with other FIRs.
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