Gauhati High Court: Ajit Borthakur, J. dismissed bail application of an accused charged with Sections 294 and 500 of Penal Code, 1860 along with Section 67A of Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act).
An FIR was lodged against Md. Karim Khan (accused) under Sections 294 and 500 of the Penal Code, 1860 along with Section 67-A of Information Technology Act, 2000 which laid a provision regarding punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form. The FIR was lodged alleging Md. Karim of posting an obscene photo of Prime Minister of India on his Facebook wall. Following the FIR, police arrested the accused. This application had been filed by the accused of obtaining bail.
Learned counsels for the petitioner, C.K Nath and S. Saikia, submitted that the accused had been behind the bars for nearly 48 days. Moreover, the accused was illiterate and had vehemently denied his involvement in the alleged offences. Thus, keeping in consideration of his length of detention, the accused prayer for bail was requested to be accepted.
Learned counsel for the respondent N.J Dutta, submitted that the case diary revealed publication of most degraded post in electronic form on the Facebook wall of the accused against the Prime Minister of India and the investigation is yet to be completed. Thus, he requested the Court to dismiss the petition.
The Court observed that on perusal of the case diary, prima facie, incriminating evidence against the accused was revealed and it certainly required further investigations. Therefore, the Court was of the view that if liberty of bail was granted at this stage of investigation, further investigation was likely to be impaired. Thus, the bail application was dismissed.[Md. Karim Khan v. State of Assam, 2019 SCC OnLine Gau 2815, decided on 24-05-2019]
