A sessions court on Monday granted bail to Delhi-based advocate Vibhor Anand after he was arrested recently for defamation and spreading fake conspiracy theories in relation to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.
Upon the plea of the prosecution to stay the order for a week so that it can approach the High Court against it, the court stayed the order until 6 November.
The 30-year-old had approached the sessions court after his bail plea was rejected by a magistrate court on 23 October.
The plea made through advocate Ashok M. Saraogi said that as an advocate to keep his knowledge up-to-date, Anand had been watching various TV channels and particularly R. Bharat wherein the anchor has openly made statements that Rajput was murdered only because of the murder of Disha Salian and who had gone to the extent of saying that a day before she died, there was a party attended by big persons. The plea said those persons are not being named to avoid any defamation case. Anand believed that the things telecast were true, it said.
He had withdrawn the objectionable tweet when he realised it may create controversy, the plea said. Advocate Saraogi argued before the court that such statements were being made by a responsible channel and people at large, including intellectual persons, are made to believe that the statements appearing on the channel openly are true and correct.
The statements Anand made on social media are nothing but an opinion framed by him on the basis of various press statements, he told the court.
Further, Anand’s plea said that in the past few months he had been disturbed mentally due to chronic alcohol abuse and even if some threats had been made by him, as have been alleged, it could be due to absentmindedness. It said he does not recollect making any such posts on Twitter or posting videos.
As a practicing advocate, he is aware of his responsibilities and the question of committing such acts does not emerge, it added.
Anand was arrested from Delhi on 15 October on the complaint in mid-Aug against him with the BKC cyber police station. He was booked for offences under the IPC of insulting the modesty of a woman, making statements conducive to public mischief, defamation, an intentional provocation for breach of peace among sections of the IT Act.