A Nagpur man accused of posting offensive social media posts about Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray was granted bail by a Mumbai court on Wednesday. The man — Sameet Thakkar — was granted bail by the Esplande court in Mumbai on a bond of Rs 25,000.
Senior counsel Abaad Ponda appeared for Sameet Thakkar and argued that all the offences registered against him were bailable and that the police had erred in arresting him. Sameet Thakkar was initially arrested from Rajkot on October 24 for allegedly posting offensive social media posts about Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son and state minister Aditya Thackeray.
There were a series of three FIRs registered against Thakkar. Thakkar was first arrested by the Nagpur police and was later granted bail by a local city court. The Mumbai Police then arrested him in one of the two cases registered against in city. One case was registered with the VP Road police station while the other was registered with the cyber cell.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian asked the counsel for Sameer Thakkar to approach the Bombay High Court with the plea, saying it can also uphold his fundamental rights.
“The High Court can also uphold your fundamental rights. It can also transfer the case and grant you bail. Then why are you coming under 32 (under Article 32 of the Constitution, writ pleas are filed in the Supreme Court).
“What makes you think that we are approving all this. We are only telling you repeatedly that you can make these arguments before the High Court. Let us have the view of High Court,” the bench said.
Mr Jethmalani then withdrew the plea of Mr Thakkar, who besides seeking bail, had sought consolidation of three FIRs registered against him for the posts.
Mr Thakkar, who has 59,000 followers on Twitter and is followed by some prominent government functionaries on the social media platform, was arrested from Rajkot on October 24 over his posts.
He has been granted bail in one case by a Nagpur court and was arrested by Maharashtra police in connection with other FIR.
