Allahabad HC grants interim anticipatory bail to Lucknow University prof booked over post on Pahalgam attack

Lucknow, June 9 The Allahabad High Court on Monday granted interim anticipatory bail to Dr Madri Kakoti, an Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Department of Lucknow University, who was booked by the Uttar Pradesh Police for her social media post reportedly concerning the deadly terror Pahalgam attack.

KaKoti approached the Allahabad High Court after a court in Lucknow rejected her anticipatory bail plea in connection with the FIR registered against her under Sections 197(1), 353 (2), 196(1) (a) 352, 302, 152 of the Bhartiya Nyay Samhita (B.N.S) and Section 69A of the I.T. Act.

She apprehended her arrest for the reason that an offence invoked in the FIR by the police is cognizable and is punishable up to life imprisonment, and the police are making every endeavour to arrest the applicant in the instant case.

In her anticipatory bail plea, Kakoti contended that although the offence was registered on the basis of an alleged online post, the same has not even been mentioned or reproduced in the FIR, adding that the omission raised "serious questions about the legality and fairness of the registration of the FIR".

"The FIR fails to mention even a single actual quote or post, despite the allegation resting entirely on the applicant’s digital expressions," said Kakoti’s plea.

In her tweet, Kakoti allegedly said: "Shooting someone after asking about their religion is terrorism. Lynching someone after asking about their religion, firing them from their job after asking about their religion, not giving them a house after asking about their religion, bulldozing a house after asking about their religion, etc. is also terrorism. Recognize the real terrorist."

The complainant, an office bearer of the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), alleged that the varsity professor, through her social media account (@ms_medusssa), made anti-national and communally inflammatory remarks following the terrorist incident in J&K’s Pahalgam.

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