Former CPS of this State who was charged with sedition for offensive posts on PM & Galwan Valley situation, gets bail

Congress leader and former chief parliamentary secretary (CPS), Neeraj Bharti, was on Tuesday granted bail by a Shimla court in a sedition case filed against him by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) wing of Himachal Pradesh Police.

Bharti was granted bail by the court of district and sessions judge, Shimla, in the afternoon on a personal bond of ₹50,000. Earlier in the day, the CID, Crime Branch produced Bharti in the court of chief judicial magistrate (CJM) as his police custody was ending on Tuesday. The CJM court sent him to a 14-day judicial custody. However, the bail petition came up for hearing in the afternoon and he was granted bail.

The former Jawali legislator was booked under Sections 124A (sedition), 153a (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.

He was summoned for questioning on June 24. He was interrogated till June 26 and eventually arrested.

Bharti, in a series of posts on Facebook, had made ‘offensive’ remarks against the Prime Minister and RSS after the violent face-off between India and China in Galwan valley of Ladakh.

A Shimla-based lawyer Narender Guleria had lodged a complaint against Bharti with the Crime Branch on June 20.

The opposition Congress had criticised Bharti’s arrest, terming it as the government’s attempt to throttle dissenting voices.

This was not the first time that Bharti landed in soup for making objectionable remarks on social media. He had triggered controversies in the past owing to his volatile social media posts.

Source Link