Allahabad High Court grants bail to journalist Prashant Kanojia two months after arrest

Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Wednesday granted bail to scribe Prashant Kanojia in a case pertaining to alleged sharing of an objectionable social media post on Ram Temple.

A bench of Justice AR Masoodi passed the order on the bail plea of Kanojia. The petitioner had pleaded that he was innocent and was implicated due to ulterior reasons. Kanojia was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police on 18 August from Delhi.

The FIR against him was registered at the Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow on 17 August for allegedly sharing an indecent post on his Twitter handle and saying that he did it on the directive of Hindu Sena chief Sushil Tiwari, who denied the allegation.

The FIR registered on the complaint of sub-inspector Dinesh Kumar Shukla said, “On 17 August, it was seen that Prashant Kanojia through his twitter handle (@Pjkanojia) had uploaded an indecent post related to Ram temple stating that it was done on orders of Tiwari.

The post was uploaded to malign Tiwari’s image, said the sub-inspector in his complaint, adding that such posts “can disturb peace”.

The case against Kanojia was lodged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including section 420 and those of the Information Technology Act.

In a Facebook post on 17 August, Tiwari said he had nothing to do with the objectionable post, asserting that he supported ‘‘Hindutva’’ ideology and not “fake posts’’.

Kanojia was earlier arrested in June last year for allegedly posting objectionable remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on social media. He was granted bail on the orders of the Supreme Court.