BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has denied anticipatory bail to an Indore-based cartoonist Hemant Malviya who was booked by police on May 21 for allegedly posting objectionable content about the RSS, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Lord Shiva.Dismissing Malviya’s anticipatory bail plea, Justice Subodh Abhyankar said, “The applicant ought to have used his discretion, while drawing the aforesaid caricature, and he had clearly overstepped the threshold of freedom of speech and expression, and doesn’t appear to know his limits. In view of the same, this Court is of the considered opinion that the custodial interrogation of the applicant would be necessary.”“The conduct of the anticipatory bail applicant in depicting the RSS, which is a Hindu organisation, along with the country’s PM in the aforesaid caricature, coupled with his endorsement of a rather demeaning remark, dragging unnecessarily the name of Lord Shiva in the comments tagged to it, is nothing but the sheer misuse of speech and expression as enshrined under Art.19(1)(a) of the Constitution, and falls under the definition of offence as contended by the complainant,” the judge added.“In the considered opinion of this Court, the post becomes more unsettling when the aforesaid derogatory lines involving Lord Shiva are also added to it, and which have also been favourably endorsed by the applicant himself who is also encouraging other people to experiment with the said caricature, which certainly cannot be said to be made in good taste or faith,” the court said in its five-page order dated July 3.“It is apparent that the applicant’s aforesaid act is deliberate and malicious intended to outrage religious feelings of the complainant and the public at large by insulting its religion, which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony in the society,” it observed.The High Court’s decision came 40 days after a sessions court in Indore had rejected Malviya’s anticipatory bail plea on 24 May.The FIR against Malviya was registered at the Lasudia police station in Indore on 21 May following a complaint by RSS worker and MP High Court advocate Vinay Joshi.Malviya has been booked under BNS Sections 196, 299, 302, 352, 353(2), and Section 67(A) of the IT Act. Joshi alleged that Malviya had deliberately shared “offensive,” “indecent,” and “obscene” caricatures intended to hurt Hindu religious sentiments.Malviya, who identifies on social media as an artist, cartoonist, and wedding decorator, frequently uses satire to comment on political and social issues. His Facebook account features cartoons, videos, and images that often target the political establishment.
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