The Bombay High Court recently quashed a FIR against a former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) for comparing Mughal king Humayun with Hanuman and Tabrej (Humayun’s brother) with Firaun (a devil in Islam) on Facebook. Shamsherkhan Vazirkhan Pathan, who retired as ACP on April 30, 2012, launched the Awami Vikas Party soon after.
On July 2, 2017, A local Shiv Sena leader called party worker Asha Mamedi to say Mr. Pathan’s Facebook post compared Hanuman and Firaun, and asked her to file a complaint. Ms Mamedi, on opening the link, found that Mr. Pathan had compared Humayun with Hanuman and Tabrej and Firaun. In her view, the post was objectionable and could lead to tension between both communities.
Subsequently, Mr. Pathan moved a Division Bench comprising Justices A.A. Sayed and Ravindra Ghuge to quash the FIR registered by Nagpada police station charging him under IPC section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).
The Bench said, “In our view, the FIR does not disclose the essential ingredients of offence punishable under section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code. There is nothing in the post of the Facebook account of Mr. Pathan which would cause insult to any religion or religious feelings, and it cannot be said that the same was done deliberately or with malicious intention to outrage religious feelings of a particular class of citizens. By no stretch of imagination can it be said that the Facebook post would outrage religious feelings of the particular class of citizens.”
The order read: “Even if we take the allegations on their face value and accept them in their entirety, they still do not prima facie constitute any offence or make out a case or an offence against Mr. Pathan.” While quashing the FIR, the court said, “The allegations made in the FIR are absurd and it cannot be concluded that there is sufficient ground for proceeding against Mr Pathan.”