Bombay HC grants protection from arrest to Rana Ayyub for four weeks

The Bombay high court (HC) on Monday granted transit anticipatory bail for four weeks to journalist Rana Ayyub who has been booked by Loni police in Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh for circulating a video which allegedly aimed at creating communal disharmony, through her Twitter handle

The Bombay high court (HC) on Monday granted transit anticipatory bail for four weeks to journalist Rana Ayyub who has been booked by Loni police in Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh for circulating a video which allegedly aimed at creating communal disharmony, through her Twitter handle. She had allegedly forwarded the video without verifying veracity of the video.

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Ayyub’s counsel, while seeking transit bail, informed the bench that the journalist had deleted the video after the first information report (FIR) was registered and also stated that she had received treatment for a spinal problem on June 11, hence she should be granted temporary protection to enable her to approach appropriate court to seek reliefs against the FIR. The court while granting the relief directed her release on furnishing a PR bond of ₹25,000 with sureties in the event of arrest.

The single bench of justice Prakash Naik was informed by senior advocate Mihir Desai that his client was a Mumbai resident and had been awarded for her integrity by the President of India. He further submitted that the FIR was filed based on her sharing a video which had been posted by someone else.

Desai said Ayyub had just shared the video and that she deleted the video after it was clarified that the allegations made about the incident in the video were not correct, though some media reports kept reporting that the incident was a communal one.

Additional public prosecutor for the state said as the application was not based on merits of the case, it was not opposing the application.

After hearing the submissions, the court accepted Ayyub’s request and granted her protection from arrest for four weeks to enable her to approach the appropriate court. The court, however, warned Desai that it would not entertain any application seeking protection beyond the said four weeks and that Ayyub should take recourse to legal remedies available to her within the given time and disposed of the application.