Orissa High Court grants bail to man accused of inciting people to assault former CJI SA Bobde with shoes for refusal to hold Rath Yatra

The Orissa High Court has granted bail to a person accused of circulating messages on a WhatsApp group urging people to join him in assaulting former Chief Justice of India SA Bobde with shoes, for denying permission to conduct Rath Yatra in 2020 (Mukesh Jain vs. State of Odisha)..Single-judge Justice SK Panigrahi Court took into account the duration of the detention of the accused and the fact that he had been ordered to be released in another case arising out of the same incident. "Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and considering the factum of release of the petitioner by the order of this Court in BLAPL No.6814 of 2020 as well as the length of detention of the petitioner in custody, this Court is inclined to allow the prayer of the petitioner. Accordingly, the court in seisin over the matter will enlarge the petitioner on bail," the Court ordered.However, the Court found it fit to impose stricter conditions and terms for grant of bail. "(i) The petitioner shall cooperate with the investigation as and when required by the Investigating Officer;(ii) He shall not indulge himself in any criminal activities in future;(iii) He shall not mis-utilise the liberty granted to him and(iv) He shall remain present before the trial court on each date of hearing of the case till its conclusion.".The Petitioner was charged with offences under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, language, etc), 153B (imputations, prejudicial to national-integration), 295A (hurting religious feelings), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505(public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66F (cyber terrorism) of the Information Technology Act, 2008..The petitioner, National Chairman of Dharma Rakshyak Shri Dara Sena, had taken exception to an order passed by a Bench headed by the former CJI refusing permission for observance of the Rath Yatra in the year 2020. The petitioner held the former CJI solely responsible for halting the Rath Yatra and aggrieving Hindu sentiments.In retaliation to this, he uploaded messages on a WhatsApp group urging people to join him on a mission to assault the former CJI with shoes.In the message, the petitioner portrayed the former CJI Bobde as a Naxalite and Christian terrorist..The counsel for the petitioner submitted that different cases at different police stations across the country were registered based on the WhatsApp messages against the accused. In another case, the Orissa High Court has allowed the accused bail. Therefore, it was argued that the same should be allowed in the instant matter..On the other hand, the counsel for the State argued that the bail application should be rejected on the ground that the offences registered against the petitioner are serious in nature that gravely impacting society..While allowing the bail application, the Court placed reliance on the judgement by the Supreme Court in Prahlad Singh Bhati v. NCT, Delhi where principles to be considered by Courts for grant of bail have been culled out.“It has also to be kept in mind that for the purposes of granting the bail the legislature has used the words “reasonable grounds for believing” instead of “the evidence” which means the court dealing with the grant of bail can only satisfy it (sic itself) as to whether there is a genuine case against the accused and that the prosecution will be able to produce prima facie evidence in support of the charge. It is not expected, at this stage, to have the evidence establishing the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.”.[Read Order]