[BREAKING] Supreme Court grants bail to comedian Munawar Faruqui; transfers all FIRs to Indore

The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to comedian Munawar Faruqui in relation to the case registered against him by the Madhya Pradesh Police for allegedly insulting religious sentiments [Munawar vs State of Madhya Pradesh]..A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sanjay Karol also clubbed all complaints against the comedian and transferred them to Indore. "Taking into consideration the facts and circumstances and the previous orders passed by this Court, we are inclined to transfer all these proceedings to Police Station Tukongaj, Indore.We further clarify that we have not considered the merits of the matter insofar as the prayer for quashing is concerned. The petitioner would be at liberty to take recourse of such proceedings as are permissible in law ... we are inclined to make the interim order granted on 05.02.2021 absolute," the bench ordered. .Faruqui was also granted protection against the production of warrants by Delhi Police for three weeks..The order was passed by top court in a plea by the stand-up comedian challenging and seeking quashing of criminal proceedings against him in a case of allegedly hurting religious sentiments..Faruqui was initially arrested on January 1, 2021, by the Madhya Pradesh Police on allegations that he would make derogatory remarks against Hindu Gods during a stand-up show in Indore. A complaint to this effect was reportedly filed by Eklavya Singh Gaur, chief of Hindutva organisation Hind Rakshak Sangathan..Faruqui's bail plea was first rejected by a Sessions Court, and thereafter the Madhya Pradesh High Court on January 28 that year.Justice Rohit Arya of Madhya Pradesh High Court had said in his order denying bail that, "regard being had to the material seized and the statements of the witnesses and that the investigation is in progress, no case is made out for grant of bail.".The Supreme Court had in February 2021, granted him ad-interim bail and stayed the production warrant of the Uttar Pradesh Police against Faruqui in a separate case. This protection was made absolute today. The Court had issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh government while observing that the law laid down by the Supreme Court in its 2014 judgment in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar was not followed and procedure under Section 41 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was not complied with while arresting the comedian..[Read our live-coverage of the hearing below].Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari appeared for the comedian.[Read order]