[Clubhouse App case] Mumbai court grants bail to Yashkumar Parashar

A Mumbai court on Tuesday granted bail to Yashkumar Parashar, one of the accused in a case registered by Mumbai Police for making derogatory remarks against women on the Clubhouse mobile app..Parashar along with two other accused, Jaishnav Kakkar and Aakash Suyal, all residents from Haryana, were arrested by Mumbai Police based on a complaint by two women who claimed they were defamed after their images had been discussed by several persons in the chatroom of the Clubhouse mobile application.The three had been sent to police custody till January 24 which was extended till January 28, 2022 and then they were all remanded to judicial custody.Their lawyers immediately moved for bail, however since the duo tested COVID positive, they were kept under quarantine.Meanwhile, Parashar was sent to judicial custody after he tested negative..The alleged incident took place in October and November 2021 when the photos of the complainants were uploaded on the app and derogatory and objectionable remarks were made about them.Their complaint stated that at one point there were talks about auctioning their private parts.Based on this complaint, the Mumbai Police had registered a first information report (FIR) on January 19, 2022 under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (malicious acts outraging religious feelings), 354D (Stalking), 509 (Words to insult modesty of woman) and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code along with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act..After the registration of FIR, units from the Cyber Cell came across screen shots of the objectionable chats on Instagram and tracked down the names of possible accused in the case based on the account names used in the chat.The police nabbed three accused all hailing from Haryana.19-year-old Suyal was taken into custody from Karnal while 22-year-old Yash Parashar and 21-year-old Jaishnav Kakkar were arrested from Faridabaḍ.