A Mumbai Court in a detailed order has recently granted bail to the 23-year-old Hyderabad techie Ramnagesh Akubathini who was accused of giving rape threats to Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s daughter on social media, according to reports. The court has noted that the rape threats were not directly addressed to Virat Kohli or his family.
Metropolitan Magistrate Komal Sing Rajput had said, “It is alleged that after the defeat of a cricket match by India against Pakistan, there was public outcry and people across India responded aggressively and criticized team members. The accused while responding crossed limits and made some sexually coloured remarks against the child of one of the members of the Indian Cricket Team.” He added, “If we perused the record and considered the remarks posted and phraseology used in its natural course, it appears that it is made in context of some other posts and may not be directly addressed to the cricketer or his family, even though as social media accounts are inter connected, it might have read/received by them.”
The Magistrate further noted that most of the charges against Ramnagesh Akubathini were of bailable offences and that “just because the matter was connected with a respectable Indian Cricket Team member,” the bail could not be rejected.
Notably, Akubathini was booked under Section 354 (A), 506, 500 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and under Sections 67 and 67-B of Information Technology Act, 2000.
Akubathini’s Advocate Abhijeet Desai had said that the statements of his client were taken out of context and were made while responding to other posts on social media. Desai said that there was no direct reference made by Akubathini to Kohli or his family.
The judge had also mentioned the non-applicability of section 67B of the IT Act pertaining to electronic circulation of child pornography. The statement said, “The contents of the First Information Report and the whole record show that in response to certain social media post accused allegedly mentioned and posted message that he is in search of photos of a child for assaulting her. He has not either transmitted or published any material showing a child involving in sexually explicit act. Therefore, there is doubt whether of these offences made out or not? At least for the limited purpose of in vie grounds assigned this aspect cannot be ignored.”
Earlier, the Mumbai police had arrested Ramnagesh Akubathini for giving rape threat to Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s daughter on social media and was taken into custody on Wednesday, November 10 by the cyber cell of Mumbai Police.
