Ranchi Girl, Held Over FB Post, Wants Action Against Complainants
Richa Bharti was arrested on 12 July for sharing an offensive social media post which targeted Muslims.
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After a Ranchi Court on Wednesday, 17 July, modified its earlier order – dropping the additional bail condition of distributing copies of the Quran – on the accused Richa Bharti, she vowed to take action against the complainants.
The 19-year-old also alleged that the complainants shared her morphed images on social media and threatened her.
“They abused me and circulated my morphed images on Facebook. They threatened me to pick me up from my college and do bad things to me,” she added.
After protests, the court put out a modified order that stated: “The Investigating Officer has prayed that the condition of donating Holy Quran by the petitioner may be done away with because of difficulties in its implementation.”
Earlier, the Ranchi District Bar Association had decided to not attend the judge’s court who gave the order in the case.
The judge had passed a judgment, on Tuesday, ordering Bharti to distribute copies of the Quran as condition for bail, for posting an allegedly communal post on social media.
WHAT IS THE CASE?
Bharti, a BCom student at a local college, was arrested on 12 July for sharing an offensive social media post, which purportedly targeted Muslims. She was granted conditional bail on Monday.
The arrest was prompted by the Anjuman Committee, which filed a complaint against her at Pithora Police Station – for sharing an objectionable post on Facebook that reportedly hurt religious sentiments.
The court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Manish Kumar Singh asked her to submit one copy of the holy book to the local Anjuman Committee in the presence of police authorities, and distribute four more copies to different libraries in the city.
The magistrate also sought the receipt or the acknowledgement of the donation within a fortnight.
WHY THE BOYCOTT
Ranchi District Bar Association's Vice President Binoy Kumar Rai told The Quint that the association had decided to boycott the court of Judge Singh on 17 and 18 July in light of the order.
According to Rai, the order passed by Singh is unconstitutional and that someone’s religious beliefs cannot be hurt like this.
He said “We have given the judge 48 hours to take a step and now it is up to him what he is going to do about it.” He further added that if something positive isn’t done in the next 48 hours then the association will decide on its next step.
SOCIAL MEDIA BACKLASH
Many on the social media platform Twitter have criticised the decision taken by the court.
(With inputs from ANI)
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