Two months after arrest, Allahabad HC grants bail to journalist Prashant Kanojia

Prashant Kanojia is a freelance journalist based out of New Delhi. (Source: Facebook/Prashant Kanojia)

Over two months after he was arrested for allegedly tweeting a “morphed” social media post made by the member of an outfit called the Hindu Army, the Allahabad High Court Wednesday granted bail to freelance journalist Prashant Kanojia, LiveLaw reported.

Kanojia was arrested from his east Delhi residence by Uttar Pradesh Police on August 18 after an FIR was filed against him in Lucknow.  According to the FIR, filed on the basis of a complaint by sub-inspector Dinesh Kumar Shukla, a Facebook post by Hindu Army’s Sushil Tiwari was morphed, and was tweeted by Kanojia “with intention to malign” Tiwari’s fame.

According to the FIR, Kanojia posted a morphed photo which read that SC, ST and OBC persons are not to be allowed into Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, with a caption stating that this was on “Tiwari’s orders”. The FIR says this image was a morphed version of a Facebook post by Tiwari.

The FIR was filed under IPC Sections dealing with promoting enmity between different communities, forgery, dishonesty, defamation, publishing rumour, and assertions prejudicial to national integration, along with relevant sections of IT Act.

Kanojia was also arrested last year for allegedly making “objectionable comments” and “propagating defamatory content” against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He was later released.

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