Hemant Malaviya, accused of making indecent cartoons of PM Modi and RSS leaders and making unfair remarks about Lord Shiva, has said to publish an apology. Malaviya proposed to apologize in all his social media accounts including Facebook and not make such cartoons in future. The Supreme Court, while allowing this, upheld the interim ban on the arrest of the cartoonist. The court also asked him to cooperate in the investigation.
Malaviya was relieved by the bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Arvind Kumar from arrest on 15 July. On Tuesday, August 19, the matter came in the bench of Justice Arvind Kumar and NV Anjaria due to the retirement of Justice Dhulia. Advocate Vrinda Grover, presented for Malaviya, said that he will publish the apologies submitted to the court on social media. Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj, presented for the Madhya Pradesh government, agreed to this.
FIR against Hemant Malaviya
Keep in mind that RSS worker and lawyer Vinay Joshi of Indore had filed an FIR against Hemant Malviya in May this year at Lasudia police station. It was said in the FIR that Hemant has tried to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus by putting objectionable material and spoil social harmony. On July 8, the Madhya Pradesh High Court refused to grant him anticipatory bail.
SC knocked door
After failing to get relief from the High Court, the cartoonist approached the Supreme Court. He said that the disputed cartoon is 2021. He was again posted by another person with indecent remarks. He shared that person’s post. For this, he is ready to apologize. The matter is being unnecessarily increased.
Social media posts are very objectionable
However, the Supreme Court also did not agree with this argument. In the last hearing, the court had said, “Nowadays people speak anything to anyone. Some social media posts of the petitioner are extremely objectionable. They can clearly become a criminal case.” In view of the strict attitude of the court, Malaviya had said to give public apology. Now this apology will be published.
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