The Madhya Pradesh High Court held that this court while exercising power under section 482 of Cr.PC or under Article 226 of Constitution of India has to consider the allegations as a gospel truth and then come to a conclusion as to whether any offence is made out or not. The defence of the suspect/ accused cannot be taken into account, the court order said.
Considering the fact that the FIR in question discloses the commission of cognizable offence no case is made out warranting interference, the court order of September 20, 2024 said.
The court dismissed a petition filed by Mohammad Bilal seeking direction to quash an FIR against him for alleged objectionable post on his Instagram account on God Ram, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Hindu religion.
The court order said ‘From the FIR it is clear that the complainant had inquired from the petitioner as to why an offensive post has been uploaded on his Instagram account. Then instead of explaining that the said post was uploaded by somebody else by hacking his account, he started abusing and humiliating the complainant and also hurt his religious feelings’.
Further the court order said ‘This conduct of the petitioner indicates that the defence of uploading the offensive post on his Instagram account by somebody else is incorrect’.
‘Since uploading of an offensive post on his Instagram account has been admitted by the petitioner himself, therefore he had no right to react in a manner in which it was done with the complainant. Whether allegations made in the FIR are correct or not cannot be considered at this stage’, the court order said.
The FIR was filed by a person in City Kotwali police station in Satna against Mohammad Bilal on 17.8.2023 under sections 294, 153A, 295A of IPC and sections 3(1) and 3(2) of SC/ST (POA) Act on ground that some person hacked his Instagram account and uploaded an offensive post on 15.08.2023 that hurt sentiments of other religion.
