Madhya Pradesh HC Refuses To Quash FIR Registered For Abusing Hindu Gods, Refuses To Accept Plea Of Muslim Man That His Instagram Account Was Hacked
The Madhya Pradesh High Court refused to quash an FIR registered against a Muslim man for hate speech against Hindus on Instagram, who claimed that his Instagram account was hacked by someone to post the messages.
The Court was hearing a Writ Petition seeking issuance of a Writ of Certiorari to quash the FIR registered for the offences punishable under Sections 294, 153-A, 295(A) of IPC and under Section 3(1)(da), 3(1)(Dha) and 3(2)(Va) of SC & ST (POA) Act.
The bench of Justice GS Ahluwalia observed, “This Court while exercising power under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. or under Article 226 of Constitution of India has to consider the allegations as a gospel truth and then come to a conclusion as to whether any offence is made out or not.”
Advocate Rishabh Singh appeared for the Appellant and Government Advocate Abhishek Singh appeared for the Respondent.
It is the case of the Petitioner that some persons by hacking his Instagram account uploaded an offensive post thereby hurting the feelings of another religion. He was accused of posting messages on Instagram abusing Lord Sri Ram and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The Court perused the FIR and noted that the complainant had inquired from the petitioner as to why an offensive post had been uploaded on his Instagram account, then instead of explaining that the said post was uploaded by somebody else by hacking his account, he started abusing and humiliating the complainant and also hurt his religious feelings.
“This conduct of the petitioner indicates that the defence of uploading the offensive post on his Instagram account by somebody else is incorrect”, the Court observed.
The Court observed, “…uploading of an offensive post on his Instagram account has been admitted by the petitioner himself, therefore, he had no right to react in a manner in which it was done with the complainant.”
Accordingly, the Court dismissed the Writ Petition.
Cause Title: Mohammad Bilal v. State of MP (Neutral Citation: 2024:MPHC-JBP:48029)