Orissa High Court refuses anticipatory bail to man accused of raising slogans against Muslims during Hanuman Jayanti procession

The Orissa High Court recently refused to grant anticipatory bail to a man booked for hurling communal abuses against Muslim community and ransacking a shop during the recent Hanuman Jayanti procession in the State [Aniket Mishra vs State of Odisha]..Single-judge Justice Chittaranjan Dash noted from the First Information Report (FIR) that the petitioner had led a mob of miscreants to attack shops as well as the residential houses of the Muslim community."The incident occurred in connection with Hanuman Jayanti while the procession being taken and the incident is one out of the retaliation to the incident that occurred just three days before the Hanuman Jayanti on April 14, 2023. The name of the present Petitioner along with others finds place in the FIR who led the mob and attacked the shops as well as the residential houses of the Muslim community," the bench noted in the order passed on May 5.A riot took place thereafter leading to arson and bloodshed, the bench noted.Anticipatory bail, the judge said, is an extra ordinary discretionary power and cannot be granted in a routine manner"There is nothing in the FIR that the Petitioner holds a prestigious position so as to draw an inference that in a situation of this kind a case could have been hatched against him in order to defame him," the Court opined.Nothing also appears from the ground propounded by the petitioner in his prayer for pre-arrest bail showing him to be a person having clean image or a man of standing repute, the Court underscored."On the contrary, grant of pre arrest bail vis-à-vis the allegations made in the FIR will have a great ramification when the situation is volatile and as such it is not desirable to allow pre-arrest bail in favour of the Petitioner before he is subjected to investigation/interrogation," the order said..On April 14, 2023 on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti, a procession was taken out at Sambalpur Town. While the procession was in progress, some miscreants ransacked a shop named - New Alishan Shoe Centre. The miscreants also set fire to the shop. During the course of the enquiry, it was ascertained that about 50 persons, taking advantage of the huge gathering in the procession of Hanuman Jayanti, attacked the shop. They were also shouting abusive and provocative slogans against minority communities, thereby outraging the religious feelings of the Muslims..Advocate Manas Kumar Chand appeared for the Petitioner.Advocate Debasish Biswal represented the State..[Read Order]