Bombay HC quashes FIR over sharing post on Tariq – Times of India

The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court recently quashed an FIR registered against a Gadchandur resident, Pawandeep Yadav, who had shared a Facebook post that allegedly hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community.
The shared post pertained to a comment made by a third person about former NCP MP Tarik Anwar leaving the party. The court held that the post wasn’t intended to insult the entire Muslim community at large, but was restricted to only one person. Yadav was, however, asked to deposit Rs 20,000 with the police welfare fund.
Yadav had moved the bench seeking to quash the FIR lodged against him for a post that he shared on Facebook. The said post was originally authored by someone else but Yadav had shared it on his profile.
The post was singularly addressed to Anwar being a Muslim and it was not clearly not attributed to the community at large. “It is seen that there is a reference to the names of three persons [Narendra Modi, Sharad Pawar and Anwar]. The so-called statement alleged to have been attributed to the Muslim community at large cannot be made out from this post,” the bench said.
The HC also considered the contention of Yadav that he “mistakenly” shared the post and didn’t intend to hurt the sentiments of Muslims as such. He even tendered an apology for the same. tnn