The court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Pune on Friday (December 8) granted bail to seer Kalicharan Maharaj in connection with a hate speech case he alleged to have delivered during an event in Pune in December last year.
Earlier Pune police had questioned him on one-day police remand after he was sent to jail in the judicial custody.
Kalicharan Maharaj had moved the bail application through his lawyer Amol Dange. The prosecution lawyer had opposed the bail plea and had stated that Kalicharan was arrested for a serious crime and was booked under non-bailable sections of IPC. The prosecution further contended that Kalicharanr once released on bail may try to incite disturbances. Besides, Kalicharan not being a local resident, he may also flee, the prosecution had contended.
Dange on this said that the allegations were ill-motivated and the FIR was lodged after a delay of seven days creating a possibility of false implications. He said that the maximum punishment for the offence was 3 years. Dange also said that Kalicharan’s arrest was illegal as the due process of law was not followed. Kalicharan was not served any notice under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
After hearing the argument of defence and the prosecution and perusing case papers, the Chief Judicial Magistrate MA Shaikh said that physical custody of Kalicharan was no longer required as police have nothing to recover from Kalicharan. The court said that the investigation will take time to complete, hence the accused Kalicharan can’t be kept in jail. “The accused can be released on bail by putting some conditions,” the court said.
The court directed Kalicharan to furnish a bail bond of Rs 25,000. Besides, he was asked to co-operate with the investigation and visit the concerned police station once a month till the charge sheet was filed.
A case was lodged against Kalicharan, Milind Ekbote, Nandakishor Ekbote, Mohanrao Shete, Dipak Nagpure, Captain (retired) Digendra Kumar and others at Khadak police station in Pune On December 28. They were booked under sections 295 A (outraging religious feelings), 298 (deliberate intention of wounding religious feelings), and 505 (2) (false statement, rumour made in place of worship, etc, with intent to create enmity).
They were accused of making inflammatory speeches and hurting religious sentiments of Muslims and Christians during the ‘Shiv Pratap Din’ programme organised by Ekbote-led Hindu Aghadi outfit on December 19, last year to celebrate the killing of Adilshahi commander Afzal Khan by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1659.
Captain Kumar who retired from the Indian Army in 2005 is a Kargil war hero. He was awarded the Mahavir Chakra in 1999.
But Kalicharan will have to stay in jail as he was arrested by Raipur police in Chhattisgarh following a case lodged at Tikrapara police station for allegedly making derogatory comments about Mahatma Gandhi at Dharma Sansad in Raipur. Kalicharan was arrested from Khajurao, Madhya Pradesh by the Chhattisgarh police.
