The order came on an application filed by Bhamre seeking quashing of the FIRs registered against him.
Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday granted bail to Nitin Bhamre, a student from Nashik who was arrested on May 13 for posting an allegedly derogatory tweet about Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar. The court also restrained the police from arresting him in three other FIRs registered against him over the same post.
The order came on an application filed by Bhamre seeking quashing of the FIRs registered against him. The court held that as Bhamre was already in custody for over a month, his further incarceration was not required and therefore he should be released during the pendency of his petition.
Bhamre’s advocates Subhash Jha and Harekrishna Mishra informed the division bench of justices N M Jamdar and N R Borkar that as per previous judgements of the Supreme court and other HCs, in the event of multiple FIRs being registered against a person for the same offence, the first FIR should be treated as the main FIR and the remaining FIRs should be clubbed with it.
Jha submitted that as Bhamre had already got bail in one FIR at Nashik and the state had not challenged it, the other FIRs should be quashed. When the bench sought to know what were the grounds for quashing of the FIRs, Jha submitted that the police had not followed the proper procedure of issuing Bhamre a notice under section 41 (A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) hence the FIRs should be quashed and he should be granted bail.
Chief Public Prosecutor Aruna Pai submitted that she was opposing the plea for interim relief due to the previous antecedents of Bhamre.
After hearing the submissions, the bench held that Bhamre was a student and was in jail for over a month and it could not be countenanced and as there was an element of public interest involved he was being granted interim bail in two FIRs in which he has been shown arrested.
The court further directed the state not to arrest him in the remaining three FIRs during the pendency of the quashing petitions.