State’s grace will be saved’: HC suggests Home dept to give nod for release of man held for posts on Pawar

The bench was hearing a plea by Nikhil Bhamre, seeking quashing of the FIR against him. Bhamre, who comes from a farmer’s family in Dindori, was arrested last month in Nashik city where he is pursuing his graduation. Bhamre does not have a prior criminal record and was an RSS worker earlier. Police said that he has made several such comments in the past as well.

Bhamre, in his plea filed through advocates Anirudh Ganu and Hare Krishna Mishra, had claimed that “police officers are hand-in-glove with the persons in power and facilitating their purpose of vindictively harassing petitioner by filing multiple complaints in an organised and synchronised manner and moving him from one jurisdiction to another endlessly.”

He added that Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) could not be levelled against him since there was no enmity being promoted between different classes with his comments. Advocate Subhash Jha, representing Bhamre, sought that his client be released on bail and said that FIRs violate his fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.

Nearly six FIRs were registered against Bhamre under IPC sections 153A, 500, 501, 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

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A magistrate court in Thane had rejected Bhamre’s bail plea. The student, while directly not naming Pawar, had tweeted in Marathi: “Time has come for Baramati’s Gandhi… to create Nathuram Godse of Baramati.” Baramati town in Pune district is Pawar’s home turf.

Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale was also arrested on the same day as Bhamre for a social media post referring to physical ailments the 81-year-old NCP leader suffers from.

Chitale has also filed a plea in High Court seeking the quashing of an FIR registered against her at Kalwa Police station. HC will hear both the pleas on Thursday.

“None is named in the tweet (by Bhamre) and to keep someone in prison for a month…We do not want the towering personality’s reputation to go down. Talk to the home ministry (home secretary) and make a statement that you are not opposing his release from custody. In our humble opinion, the grace of state will be saved if you make such a statement,” the bench told Chief Public Prosecutor Aruna Pai for the Maharashtra police and posted the hearing on Thursday.