Andhra Pradesh High Court stays arrest of man booked for social media post against CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

The Andhra Pradesh High Court recently stayed the arrest of a man accused of posting material on Facebook and WhatsApp against the Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, whereby he had also allegedly morphed images to cause a loss of reputation to a woman MLA (G. Veera Venkanna v. State of Andhra Pradesh and Another)..Justice Cheekati Manavendranath Roy was hearing plea by Veera Venkanna, who stood accused of offences punishable under Sections 153-A, and 505(2), read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code,1860 (IPC)..The Court agreed that the petitioner could make out a strong prima facie case for setting aside the FIR. .As such, the Court decided to grant the petitioner interim relief and restrained the authorities from taking any coercive steps till the next hearing. ."The petitioner could make out a strong prima facie case warranting interference of this Court under Section 482 CrPC to examine in the main Criminal Petition whether launching of criminal prosecution against the petitioner for the aforesaid two offences is legally sustainable or not and whether the said F.I.R is liable to be set aside or not ... there shall be interim stay of further proceedings ... including taking coercive steps against the petitioner, till the next date of hearing", the Court said..The complainant in the case was a tribal woman and the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Rampachodavaram. She had filed the FIR alleging that her reputation was affected by the petitioner's comments and that the said comments were meant to create a dispute between various groups..The petitioner, however, asserted that the contents of the First Information Report (FIR) did not satisfy the ingredients of the offences he stood accused of, i.e. Section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) and Section 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the IPC..In this regard, reliance was placed on the Supreme Court judgment in Bilal Ahmed Kaloo v. State of Andhra Pradesh and the Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment in Kantamaneni Ravishankar v. State of Andhra Pradesh..The matter is listed to be heard next on October 28. .Advocate KM Krishna Reddy appeared for the petitioner..[Read Order]