Bail to a man who allegedly threatened to kill Prime Minister Modi and UP CM Yogi Adiyanath : Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has granted bail to a man who allegedly threatened to exterminate the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath.

The single judge Bench of Justice Pankaj Bhatia, while granting bail to accused Salman, observed that,

"Considering the fact that prima-facie from the FIR in question, an offence can be said to be made out against the applicant under Sections 506 & 507 IPC, both of them being bailable in nature, coupled with the fact that the applicant is in jail since 31.08.2021 and there is nothing on record to demonstrate that the applicant, if enlarged on bail, would adversely affect the trial, the applicant is entitled to be enlarged on bail. In view thereof, the application is allowed." 

The fact that the offences against the accused were bailable and that he was languishing in jail since August 31, 2021 were taken into consideration before passing bail orders.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), a call was received on UP Police emergency services from the applicant's mobile phone threatening to kill the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister in view of their public statements. The caller also allegedly told the police that he would kill them and would surrender.

“…threatening to kill the Prime Minister as well as Chief Minister. It is also on record that the caller stated that on account of their public statements, he wants to do the same and go to jail.”

Later, when investigation was carried out, the mobile phone from which the call was received was recovered from the applicant by the police.

A case was registered against the applicant who was charged under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) and 505(1) (b) [statements conducing to public mischief) of Indian Penal Code and Section 66 of Information Technology Act.

The counsel for applicant submitted that, “Though the offences under Sections 506 and 507 can be made out as per FIR, the same are triable by Magistrate and are bailable offences.”

Further it was submitted that, though Section 505 is a bailable offence, the same is not made out in the instant case going by the allegations contained in FIR.

On the contrary, the Additional Government Advocate (AG) vehemently argued that the nature of the offence committed by the applicant threatens the fabric of the society.

"He threatened the elected representative of the country and should be heavily punished," the AGA submitted.

Taking into account the factual matrix of the present case, the Bench observed that the AGA could not deny that the offences under Sections 506 and 507 were bailable offences.

Thereby, the Court granted bail to the accused and noted that, “There was nothing on record to demonstrate that if enlarged on bail, he would adversely affect the trial.”

Cause Title - Salman @ Arman Chaudhary vs State of UP