Madras HC refuses anticipatory bail to person who shared blasphemous post on Prophet Mohammed

Chennai: Madras High Court dismissed an anticipatory bail petition filed by an individual who was booked under the provisions of the Bharathiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology Act, 2000 for sharing a blasphemous post against Prophet Mohammed on his Facebook.

Single bench Judge of the Madras High Court, Justice P. Dhanabal dismissed the advance bail plea filed by an individual, R. Murugesan (48), of Rathinapuiri in Coimbatore in a case booked by the Coimbatore Police on July 20, 2024.

His anticipatory plea was earlier rejected by the Coimbatore Principal and District Sessions Court on August 8, 2024.

The court agreed with the contention moved by the Government pleader. Advocate S. Santhosh contended that no person could escape prosecution by claiming to have just shared a message authored by someone else by mistake or by claiming to have deleted the post after realising the mistake.

Tamil Nadu government pleader Santhosh cited Justice N. Anand Venkatesh’s 2023 judgment in actor S.V. Shekher’s case in which the court had held that those who share messages on social media must be very cautious. The court had also then said that such a person could not be allowed to escape penal consequences for the damage caused before deleting the post.