Tweets by Ramnagesh Akubathini may not have been addressed to Virat Kohli or family: Mumbai Court [READ ORDER]

Tweets by 23-year-old Ramnagesh Akubathini may not have been directly addressed to Indian cricketer Virat Kohli or his family, a Mumbai Court observed while granting bail to Akubathini who was booked for posting rape threats on Twitter against the infant child of Kohli and his wife Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma..Akubathini, a State topper and a graduate from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad had allegedly posted objectionable tweets against the 10-month-old daughter of Kohli and Sharma after Indian cricket team lost the T20 world cup match on October 24 against Pakistan.The loss had led to online abuses against another cricketer Mohammad Shami who was singled out for his religion.Kohli had, however, sprung to the defence of Shami leading to outrage against the star batsman.Mumbai Police had intercepted Akubathini in Hyderabad and arrested him after the cyber wing of Mumbai Police had registered a case based on a complaint by Kohli's manager on November 8, 2021.Akubathini has been booked under Sections 354A (outraging modesty), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code along with Sections 67 and 67B of the Information Technology Act (IT Act) for publishing or transmitting obscene material and sexually explicit material against children in electronic form.He was granted bail by the Metropolitan Magistrate at Bandra, Mumbai on November 20, 2021. .In the bail order which became available this week, the Metropolitan Magistrate Komalsing Rajput noted that from the “remarks posted and phraseology used in its natural course, it appears that it is made in context of some other posts and may not be directly addressed to the cricketer or his family” even if the they may have read it through inter-connected social media accounts.“Merely because the matter is connected with some respectable Indian Cricket Team member, as objected, the prayer cannot be rejected,” the Magistrate observed..“Merely because the matter is connected with some respectable Indian Cricket Team member, as objected, the prayer cannot be rejected.”Metropolitan Magistrate Komalsing Rajput.Advocate Abhijeet Desai appearing for Akubathini had argued that as per cyber law, there is always a possibility of hacking of IP addresses. The tweet had been deleted after it went viral, which only created a possibility of having been posted through misuse of the accused's IP address to "create problem for him and his bright future"..While granting bail to Akubathini, the Magistrate observed that a majority of the offences against him were bailable.The court also opined that the investigation involves a lot of technical aspects and collecting material and filing of chargesheet will take time. Hence “pre-trial detention was not justifiable”..From the contents of the FIR, the Court deduced that Akubathini had neither transmitted nor published any material showing a child involved in sexually explicit act."There is doubt whether any of these offences are made out or not? At least for the limited purpose of bail, this aspect cannot be ignored," the Magistrate said..[Read Order]