Court grants pre-arrest bail to accused booked for caste-shaming society chairman

A member of a housing society in Mumbai has been granted anticipatory bail after allegedly caste-shaming the society's chairman on multiple occasions. The court granted bail due to a delay in filing the FIR and lack of evidence of caste-based humiliation.

MUMBAI: The sessions court recently granted anticipatory bail to a member of the managing committee of Neelashish Cooperative Housing Society (CHS) in Andheri West booked for allegedly caste-shaming the chairman of the society publicly on multiple occasions.

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The series of events started in 2021, and the court granted him pre-arrest bail primarily given the delay in registering the first information report (FIR), in 2023, believing that the FIR was an afterthought. The court allowed an application filed by Vijay Master, 64, and ordered that he be released on executing a personal bond of ₹20,000 and furnishing one or two sureties in the same amount.

According to the police, on June 10, 2021, the chairman of the society was repairing the water connection with the help of a sweeper. The accused abused the duo publicly, referring to their caste. This was repeated in July 2021, when Master allegedly created chaos during a society meeting and repeatedly caste-shamed the chairman. These events continued till March 2023, when again, during a society meeting, Master allegedly refused to sign the resolution for re-development and continued to abuse the chairman after everyone left.

Advocate Samiksha Mayekar, representing the accused, argued that the last incident was admittedly not in the presence of any person other than the accused and the informant (chairman). She further said that though the incidents began in 2021, the FIR was only filed in June 2023.

Master has been booked under sections 109 (punishment of abetment), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and section 3(1) (Punishments for offences of atrocities) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Additional sessions judge Shrikant Bhosale noted that the accused is a member of the Managing Committee of the housing society, and the informant is the Chairman of the society, hence, there is a dispute between them about the redevelopment of the building. “On this background, there appears a reason for the informant to file incorrect information with the police to achieve ulterior motive or to pressurize the applicant,” he added.

“The allegations are only of abusive statements by referring to the caste, but there is no allegation that reference of caste was to humiliate the applicant only because he is from a particular caste,” said the court while granting Master anticipatory bail.