Kerala High Court grants bail to man arrested for sharing indecent Facebook posts on Prophet Muhammad

The Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to a man who was booked for disrupting communal harmony by allegedly sharing indecent Facebook posts about Prophet Muhammad. .Justice Viju Abraham noted that the petitioner Boban PV had been in custody for 12 days and that the mobile phone that was allegedly used by him had already been seized.The Court, therefore, granted bail subject to executing a bond of ₹50,000 and two solvent sureties of the same sum..The prosecution allegation was that on September 6, the petitioner (accused) shared Facebook posts of indecent and scandalous comments on Prophet Muhammad. A complaint was registered with the Police by the de-facto complainant claiming that the actions of the petitioner brought disgrace to the Islamic faith.Subsequently, the petitioner was booked under Section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) of Indian Penal Code and Section 120(o) of the Kerala Police Act. He then moved the Kerala High Court seeking bail. It was argued on behalf of the petitioner that he had been in custody from September 7. It was submitted that the petitioner is only a headload worker and it is only due to his ignorance in using mobile phones that the alleged incident happened. Opposing the grant of bail, the prosecution argued out that it is the petitioner himself who had commented on the Facebook group and that the allegations against him are very serious in nature. .The Court deemed it fit to grant bail but directed the petitioner to appear before the Investigating Officer every Saturday and to refrain from attempting to influence any witnesses or the de-facto complainant..[Read Order]