Taslima Nasreen's tweet not malicious says Patna High Court, revokes six-year old complaint

Patna: The Patna High Court has quashed a six-year-old order of a lower court which took cognisance of a complaint against controversial Bangladeshi write Taslima Nasreen for allegedly hurting religious sentiments with a tweet. The writer’s tweet was neither malicious nor was it made to intentionally disturb any public order, Justice Arun Kumar said in his order on Thursday on a petition filed by Nasreen challenging the decision of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court at Bettiah in West Champaran district. The CJM court, without conducting a mandatory inquiry under Section 202 of CrPC, took cognisance in the matter, the high court said while quashing the lower court’s order. [caption id=“attachment_2402374” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Taslima Nasreen. PTI[/caption] The tweet, which was allegedly made with regard to Muslim women in 2011, was published in a Hindi vernacular. Murad Ali, an advocate at Bettiah civil court, had filed a complaint in the CJM court against Nasreen on 24 October, 2011. The CJM court took cognisance of the matter on 24 May, 2012 and later issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the writer. The author, who is living in India in a self-imposedexile, had challenged the CJM’s decision through her lawyer Amit Srivastava in the Patna high court which had stayed proceedings and execution of NBW on 15 April, 2013. Srivastava said that Murad Ali, the complainant at Bettiah lower court, did not appear in the high court for six hearings on Thursday when the HC passed the order. Nasreen had fled Bangladesh in the early 1990s after right wing Muslim outfits issued death threats to her.