Punjab and Haryana High Court grants bail to man accused of making offensive comments on Sikh Guru and his father

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently granted bail to a man accused of using derogatory and offensive language against Sikh Guru Guru Nanak Dev and his father.

The accused, namely Vasu Syal, was arrested in November last year when his name surfaced in a case registered over a viral audio clip where three-four people were allegedly making offensive and hurtful comments on the Sikh Guru.

The bench of Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu granted bail to Syal noting that the investigation in the case is complete and there is no apprehension that he may evade or otherwise interfere with the trial.

The First Information Report (FIR) was lodged on the complaint of one Parvinder Singh. It was alleged that a man named Anil Arora runs a page on Facebook and for quite some time he had been uploading posts and messages on social and religious issues which instigates and causes division in Hindu-Sikh unity.

It was further alleged that one of the videos of Anil Arora went viral on social media which was essentially an audio cutting. In the clip, Arora was talking to three-four persons and using inappropriate terminology against the Sikh Guru and his father.

The complainant alleged that this conversation was offensive to the followers of the Sikh Religion and because of that, there was resentment amongst the members of the Sikh Community.

Initially, the FIR was registered under Section 295-A IPC against Anil Arora and 3-4 other unidentified persons, however, during investigation, other offences including Section 153-A were added.

Pleading for Syal's bail, his counsel argued before the court that the ingredients of offences under Section 153A and 295A are not satisfied in this case. He asserted that there was no evidence to suggest that the offensive words were uttered with any intent to cause or promote disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will on the grounds of religion and there was no material to indicate that the conversation was deliberately and maliciously intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India.

He contended, "The conversation can only be characterized as a foolish utterance in extremely bad taste."

In view of the above, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, Court allowed Syal's bail plea and directed the authorities to release him on bail on his furnishing bail/surety bonds to the satisfaction of the Trial Court/Duty Magistrate concerned

Case Title: Vasu Syal v. State of Punjab