Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has quashed the first information report (FIR) against Ramnagesh Akubathini, a 25-year-old software engineer who was accused of posting rape threats on Twitter against the infant child of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma.
A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik passed the order after the complainant in the case, Kohli's manager Aquilia D'Souza, granted consent to drop charges against the accused. The plea said Akubathini is a State topper and graduate from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad.
He had allegedly posted objectionable tweets against the then 10-month-old daughter of Kohli and Sharma after the Indian cricket team lost the T20 world cup match against Pakistan on October 24, 2021. He moved for quashing of the FIR in February 2022, claiming that continuation of the proceedings in the case would cause severe prejudice to him.
He also claimed to be a meritorious student and rank-holder in the JEE (Advanced) Exam. The petition filed through advocate Abhijeet Desai stated that the accused had been interning with reputed companies and did not have any criminal antecedents or allegations of moral turpitude levied against him.
The plea added that a pending FIR would be an impediment to the accused's pursuit of Masters abroad or any other future prospects. The petition also contended that there was no evidence to prove that the tweet in question had come from the IP address of the device which belonged to the accused.
On Monday, the lawyer appearing through P Vas and Company on behalf of the complainant filed the affidavit granting consent to quash the FIR. Accordingly, the FIR was quashed. The offence was registered on November 8, 2021, for offences punishable under Sections 354 (outraging modesty), 506 (criminal intimidation), 500 (defamation) and 201 (disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code along with offences under the Information Technology Act.
Mumbai Police intercepted Akubathini in Hyderabad and arrested him. Akubathini was produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Bandra on November 11, 2021, and remanded to 4-day police custody before being sent to judicial custody on November 16.
He moved for bail, which was granted on November 21, 2021. The Magistrate court while granting bail held that the tweets in question may not have been directly addressed to Indian cricketer Virat Kohli or his family.
