Court grants interim bail
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 25 2021: The Session Judge Imphal West has granted interim bail to one Nelson Soibam (28) over a Facebook post and fixed 2 June for report and hearing.

The interim bail was granted after Nelson Soibam, son of Arunkumar of Singjamei Thongam Leikai filed an application for anticipatory bail before the Court.

The anticipatory bail was heard through video conferencing by the Court yesterday.

The counsel of the petitioner during the hearing submitted that the petitioner was a student and had posted "corona naba mee da chikpa kangduna attoppa corona nadaba meeda chikpada corona nabara" which literally means 'whether mosquito bites can spread corona from infected to uninfected person'.

Such a mere post is not chargeable under the non bailable offence, the counsel submitted.

It has become a rampant practice in Manipur to arrest people and put them into police custody unnecessarily by invoking non-bailable offences, the counsel submitted.

The counsel further submitted that some police personnel of Singjamei Police Station came to the residence of Nelson and told his family members to make sure Nelson appears before Singjamei police or else he will be arrested.

Under such circumstances, the petitioner (Nelson) had genuine apprehension that he may be arrested by personnel of Singjamei Police on false and concocted charges and thus prayed for the anticipatory bail.

The Court on perusal of the application and considering the facts as disclosed in the application, ordered that the matter will be considered after OC Singjamei PS furnishes a detailed report and thus directed OC Singjamei PS to submit a detailed report regarding the application.

In the meantime, the Court granted interim pre-arrest bail to the petitioner and directed that in the event of arrest in connection with the matter the petitioner shall be released on bail on his furnishing of Rs 30 thousand PR bond and surety of the same amount and other conditions.

The petitioner was also directed to cooperate with the investigation, make available before the Investigating Officer and not to influence prosecution witnesses and leave the State without prior permission from the Court.

The Court further directed the petitioner not to post any offensive comments on issues including Covid pandemic on social media while the disposal of the application was pending and fixed June 2 for report and hearing.

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