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Tag: Munawar Faruqui bail

  • Despite bail, comedian Munawar Faruqui yet to be released from jail

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: Despite being granted intermit bail by the Supreme Court, comedian Munawar Faruqui is yet to be released from the Jail in Indore with officials citing execution of a warrant issued by a Prayagraj court.

    The 30-year-old stand-up comedian could have to spend a couple of days more in the Indore Jail, as the authorities are yet to get official intimation from the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court Prayagraj.

    According to a senior official at the MP Jail HQ in Bhopal, “He (Faruqui) has been released in the New Year Day event-related case of Indore in which he was granted interim bail by a division bench of the top court on Friday. He has been released in Indore case, as the SC order pertaining to that case is already with the Indore Jail. The SC in the same order had also stayed the production warrant issued against him by the CJM-Prayagraj (UP) court last month in an April 2020 case, but that order hasn’t been intimated to the Indore Jail from the CJM-Prayagraj court as yet. He can be released finally from the Jail, only when we’ve official intimation about SC order in both the cases.”

    READ| Munawar Faruqui arrested under pressure from BJP MLA’s son, claims comedian’s kin

    On Friday, a division bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and BR Gavai, had ordered Faruqui’s release on ad-interim bail in the Indore case on conditions to the satisfaction of the trial court. The apex court had also stayed the production warrant issued by the CJM-Prayagraj court.

    It’s been 36 days since the Mumbai-based Muslim comedian has been lodged in the Indore Jail following the arrest of six men, including him, in a case pertaining to the alleged hurting of Hindu religious sentiments at a New Year’s Day show in Indore’s Chhappan Dukan area.

    On ruling BJP MLA Malini Gaur’s son Eklavya Singh Gaur’s complaint on January 1, 2021, the Tukoganj police in Indore had booked Munawar Faruqui and five others under IPC Sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 298 (deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings), 269 (negligent act likely to spread disease), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 34 (crime with common intention). The Tukoganj police had arrested the six accused on January 2.

    Since then Faruqui’s bail pleas have been rejected by the Indore district and session court as well as the Indore Bench of the MP High Court.

    While Faruqui was in judicial custody in the Indore case, the George Town police of UP’s Prayagraj district had obtained a production warrant against Faruqui from CJM-Prayagaraj court in an April 2020 case, in which also Faruqui is accused of making insulting remarks about Hindu deities and union minister Amit Shah.

  • Stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui’s bail plea rejected by Madhya Pradesh High Court

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: In jail for the last 26 days for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, Mumbai-based stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui has failed to get any relief from the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

    Three days after reserving orders on the bail applications of Faruqui and co-accused Nalin Yadav, the MP High Court’s single judge bench in Indore headed by Justice Rohit Arya dismissed both the bail pleas on Thursday.

    While rejecting the submissions by Faruqui’s counsels that though he was present on the spot at the show, he didn’t utter anything as alleged in the FIR, the HC held “at this stage it is difficult to countenance the submissions of the learned counsel for the applicant, as the complacency of the applicant cannot be ruled out, besides vulnerability of his acts in public domain. It is not a case of no evidence.”

    While dismissing the bail applications, the HC mentioned in the order, “this Court refrains from commenting upon the contentions of the parties touching on merits but, regard being had to the material seized and the statements of the witnesses and that the investigation is in progress, no case is made out for grant of bail.”

    The HC judge also mentioned in the order, “The evidence/material collected so far, suggest that in an organized public show under the garb of stand-up comedy at a public place on commercial lines, prima facie; scurrilous, disparaging utterances, outraging religious feelings of a class of citizens of India with deliberate intendment, were made by the applicant.”

    Justice Rohit Arya observed in the ten page order, “It is the Constitutional duty on every citizen of the country and the States to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood irrespective of religious, linguistic, sectional and regional diversities and to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture under (Article 51A(e) and (f) of the Constitution).

    Faruqui and five others, including siblings Prakhar and Priyam Vyas, Nalin Yadav, Edwin Anthony and Sadaqat were arrested on January 2 by the Tukoganj police in Indore for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through derisive comments about Hindu deities on the New Year Day evening comedy show at a popular café in Indore’s Chhappan Dukan area.

    A case was registered against Faruqui and other under Sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 298 (deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings), 269 (negligent act likely to spread disease), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 34 (common intention) of IPC on the complaint by Eklavya Singh Gaur, the head of right-wing Hindu outfit Hind Rakshak Sangathan. Eklavya Gaur is the son of ex-Indore mayor and present BJP MLA Malini Gaur.

    Importantly, the George Town Police of Payagraj district of Uttar Pradesh has obtained a production warrant from a court in Prayagaraj district in a similar case registered against Faruqui in April 2020. The warrant as per Prayagraj police has already been submitted to the Indore District Jail and the CJM court for taking Faruqui for production before court in Prayagraj in the April 2020 case.