Tweets against Thackerays: Mumbai court grants bail to Sameet Thakkar

Mumbai: A magistrate's court on Monday granted bail to Nagpur resident Sameet Thakkar in one of the three cases registered against him for allegedly tweeting "objectionable" content against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his minister son Aaditya Thackeray.

Thakkar was granted a cash bail of Rs 25,000 by the magistrate's court in Bandra, said his lawyer Abad Ponda.

Thakkar had secured bail in a case registered against him at the BKC Cyber Cell police station in Mumbai following his tweet against the Thackerays earlier this year.

Two more FIRs were registered against him for the same tweets, one in Nagpur, and another at the VP Road Police Station, also in Mumbai.

Ponda said Thakkar will be released from jail following the bail order since he had already secured a similar relief in the other two cases.

Thakkar was arrested by the Mumbai Police in October this year after he failed to appear before the VP Road and BKC police stations to record his statement, despite a Bombay High Court order directing him to do so.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court declined to entertain a petition filed by Thakkar under Article 32 of the Constitution alleging violation of his fundamental rights and seeking his release from jail.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian asked the counsel for Thakkar to approach the Bombay High Court with the plea saying that it can also uphold his fundamental rights.

Thakkar's counsel in the apex court, Mahesh Jethmalani, had prayed that all the three criminal cases registered against his client be consolidated into one.

In Nagpur, the FIR was registered against Thakkar following a complaint lodged by Shiv Sena worker Nitin Tiwari. The two FIRs in Mumbai were registered on the complaints of lawyer and Shiv Sena functionary Dharmendra Mishra.