The Bombay HC has expressed disappointment with the
authorities over FIRs filed against a Nashik student Nikhil Bhamre, 21, over a
"frivolous'' matter who had allegedly tweeted against a veteran state
politician.
The bench, which was hearing his writ petition seeking
quashing of FIRs against him, questioned how social media posts could form the
basis of FIRs.
"There are hundreds and thousands of tweets every day.
Will you take cognizance of each and every tweet? We do not want FIRs like
these…Unheard of…student is kept in custody like this," it observed,
adding "nobody" was named on a page that contained a tweet by Bhamre.
"If you start taking actions like this, you end up
damaging the name of the person who has received the second highest civilian award
— a Padma Vibhushan. Even the towering personality (indicating Sharad Pawar but
not taking his name) will not like a student being kept in jail. We do not want
the towering personality's reputation to go down," the bench said.
Public prosecutor Aruna Pai said she would "take instructions''
from police authorities and the home department after the court asked for its
stand on giving no objection to releasing Bhamre from custody.
The police had come prepared with a chart of cases to show
there are six criminal cases registered against Bhamre and one alleged
antecedent, TOI reported. Bhamre's counsel Anirudh Ganu said he will seek an
urgent hearing on Wednesday or an early date this week.
Actor Ketaki Chitale, whose quashing petition was adjourned
to Wednesday, faces over 20 FIRs and four non-congnizable cases in similar
charges and also has been behind bars for a month.
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