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Delhi court grants bail to ‘The Skin Doctor’ arrested for post against Priya Kapur
Judicial Magistrate First Class Snehil Sharma of Patiala House Courts granted bail to Sharma at 10pm after the accused was produced at the judge’s residence
A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to social media influencer Neelam Singh, also known as “The Skin Doctor” on X, for allegedly posting objectionable content about businessman Sunjay Kapur’s family on social media, after noting that there was no criminality in his post.
Judicial Magistrate First Class Snehil Sharma of Patiala House Courts granted bail to Sharma at 10pm after the accused was produced at the judge’s residence.
The judge noted, “There is no mens rea in the act of the accused and no criminality emerges from the said tweet”.
Singh, a dermatologist with an active social media presence, was arrested by the Delhi Police on Wednesday evening after a complaint was filed by late Sunjay Kapur’s wife Priya Kapur at the Vasant Kunj Police Station.
She stated that a post related to the Kapur family, purportedly posted on X (formerly Twitter) by the accused, was false and arose out of alleged manipulation of court records.
She stated that the alleged defamatory content was intentionally posted against her to align her reputation.
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A first information report (FIR) was lodged in the matter under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 303 (theft) and 356(2) (defamation) and relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
The court in its order cited Arnesh Kumar guidelines, which prevents unnecessary detention for arrests punishable by less than seven years.
“The accused has cooperated in the investigation and no further custody is required,” the court noted.
The police had moved a remand plea for two days, stating that Singh had not been cooperating in the investigation regarding the alleged posts and was evasive in his responses. They had stated that he was not responding to the summons served upon him.
Advocate Ravi Sharma and Siddharth Handa, on behalf of Singh, argued that the court records were public documents and were a portion of a signed affidavit and that the accused had no criminal antecedents.
