Chandigarh court denies bail to Hyderabad man arrested for "scandalous" tweet on PM Modi

A Chandigarh court has denied bail to a Hyderabad-based man who was arrested on April 25 for allegedly posting misleading and scandalous information about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a post on X.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sonali Singh said there are serious allegations against accused Hassan Mohiduddin Siddiqui and there would be public disturbance in case he is granted bail.

"I am of the view that if bail is granted to the applicant, it will amount to disturbing the public order and it will promote enmity between the groups and other allegations," the judge said in order passed on July 27.

Taking note of the fact that Siddiqui's first bail application was rejected in May, the Court said no new ground was brought on record to seek the relief except that now a chargesheet has been filed against him.

However, the Court opined that presentation of chargesheet is not a ground to grant bail to the accused.

Siddiqui was booked by Chandigarh Police in April this year on a complaint filed by lawyer Satinder Singh.

The accused had posted and commented on a video showing a person getting a head message from a woman. Since the man allegedly looked like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he wrote following false message with it:

“#BreakingNews: LEAKED video of Narendra Modi massage, reports coming that the Intel Agencies of US has tons of videos of him in compromising positions. Hey@grok this is real’?

Seeking bail, the counsel representing accused said that he has been in prison for over two months and that the penal provisions invoked against him only provide for a maximum punishment of three years.

In response, Chandigarh Police said the material shared by the accused through his social media account was provocative, objectionable and capable of inciting communal disharmony and disturbing peace and order.

Considering the nature of allegations, the Court said no ground was made out to release the accused and rejected his bail plea.

Advocate Abhey Joshi represented the accused.

In May, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had denied anticipatory bail to academic Madhu Purnima Kishwar in the same FIR.

According to media reports, the X post shared by Kishwar claimed that the man receiving a facial massage in a video was the Prime Minister. The claim was later debunked by fact-checkers.

[Read Chandigarh court order]