Prayagraj, Jul 24 The Allahabad High Court has dismissed the appeal of a man accused of posting casteist remarks against Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad on social media.
The appeal challenged an order of the Hamirpur sessions court which rejected the discharge application of the accused.
The court said that at the stage of framing of charge, the court is only required to examine whether a prima facie case exists and not to conduct a "mini-trial."
Justice Santosh Rai dismissed the criminal appeal filed by one Chandra Prakash Singh alias Goli Thakur, who challenged the trial court's order rejecting his discharge application in a case registered under section 352 BNS (intentional insult), Section 66 IT Act, and provisions of SC/ST Act.
According to the appellant, the FIR was lodged after a delay of about seven days and no specific casteist words were mentioned in his social media post. He claimed that the allegations made against him were vague.
State counsel opposed the appeal, submitting that the appellant was specifically named in the FIR and there was sufficient prima facie material, including the social media post containing the objectionable statements, against him.
The court said that although the FIR did not reproduce the specific casteist words allegedly used, it did allege that abusive remarks had been made against the Lok Sabha member.
The court also observed that the statements of prosecution witnesses specifically mentioned the abusive words allegedly used and supported the prosecution case.
The court, in its order dated July 21, said that a prima facie perusal of the material indicated that the impugned remarks were allegedly directed against a particular community belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.
