Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday censured the Maharashtra government for arresting 21-year-old student Nikhil Bhamre after he had made a controversial tweet against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar.
A Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Milind Jadhav wondered how the tweet could be the basis for an FIR against Bhamre. The Bench said there were hundreds and thousands of tweets every day and asked if the government would take cognizance of every tweet it deems offensive. “There are hundreds and thousands of tweets everyday. Will you take cognizance of each and every tweet? We do not want FIRs like these. …Unheard of… some student is kept in custody like this,” the Bench said.
Justice Shinde said, "There is no name on page 48 which included Bhamre's primary tweet and keeping someone in jail for a month. How is this the basis of everything? What led to the FIR as per page 48?" The Court was hearing a petition filed by Bhamre, seeking quashing of the FIRs registered against him over the tweets from his account allegedly aimed at the veteran politician leader and seeking immediate release. Bhamre has several FIRs registered against him for offences under Sections 153, 153A, 500, 501, 504, 505, 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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Justice Shinde said that filing charges against the accused in the present case would further damage the reputation of Pawar against whom the tweets were made. "If you start taking actions like this, then you end up damaging the name of the second-highest civilian award winner (Pawar). Even a great personality like Pawar will not like to put such a student in jail. We do not want the great personality's reputation to go down," the judge noted.
The court, while posting the matter for further hearing on June 16, directed the public prosecutor to take instructions from the State Home Department and make a statement of no-objection for releasing Bhamre from custody. "In our humble opinion, if you come and make this statement, the grace of the state will be saved," the bench finally said.
