In a recent Judgment, The Punjab & Haryana High court, in the case of Gagandeep Sharma v. The State of Punjab comprising of Single Judge Bench Justice Avneesh Jhinghan hearing petition for Anticipatory bail ruled that mere relationship or familiarity doesn’t allow a person to share obscene content on the internet.
A complaint was lodged against the petitioner u/s 354, 354-A of the IPC, and u/s 66 of the IT act. The petitioner had circulated certain photographs of the prosecutrix on WhatsApp and sent/delivered certain offensive messages on her mobile, when the prosecutrix was going to the temple, the petitioner forcibly dragged her in his shop and did obscene acts. On her resistance, she was threatened to be eliminated.
The petitioner filed the anticipatory bail for the charges against him before the Punjab & Haryana high court as the charges on the petitioner are bailabe.
The petitioner in its contentions submits before the Court that the:
- Prosecutrix and the petitioner are known each other since long as they are co-villagers.
- prosecutrix is major, the reliance is upon photographs that the prosecutrix had relations with the petitioner.
- charges on the petitioner apart from 354-A are bailable and the court should consider the anticipatory bail petition.
The Respondent in its Contentions stated that:
- during the investigation, it has been found that the petitioner has uploaded certain material on whatsapp which is objectionable.
- The fact that the petitioner and the prosecutrix were known to each other does not entitle the petitioner to misuse the social media and circulate objectionable material.
- There is no date on the photographs and moreover even assuming that these photographs were earlier in time, this is not enough to permit the petitioner to malign the image of a girl.
Considering the seriousness of the allegations and this being a case where custodial interrogation would be necessary to recover the material available with the petitioner against the prosecutrix, no case is made out for anticipatory bail.
Further, the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the petition.
Case Details:
Case Title: Gagandeep Sharma v. The State of Punjab
Court: Punjab and Haryana High Court
Coram: Justice Avneesh Jhingan
Case No. CRM-M-44273 of 2020
Date of Decision: 05.01.2021
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