Two Munawar Faruqui co-accused get ad-interim bail, two others still in jail

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday granted ad-interim bail to Prakhar Vyas and Edwin Anthony, arrested along with stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui for allegedly hurting religious sentiments during a show earlier this year.

Arguing before the court, Ajay Bagadiya, the counsel for both Prakhar and Edwin, said, in a bid to maintain parity, the two should be granted ad-interim bail.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Bagadiya said, “We requested the court that let parity be maintained without getting into the merits and demerits of the case at this stage. Although, we have a case on merits as well. I am not only claiming the case on parity but on merits as well.”

However, the court stated that just to maintain parity, we will grant ad-interim bail, in consonance of the order of the Supreme Court, Bagadiya said.

According to Bagadiya, the Indore police had levied two allegations against Prakhar. In the first, they claimed Prakhar had made 18 phone calls to Munawar since March 2020 to January 2021. And secondly, he had also allegedly appeared on stage either before or immediately after Munawar where he made certain snide remarks against Hindu God-Goddesses and thereby disrupted communal harmony.

Earlier Munawar and Priyam Vyas were released on bail, while Nalin Yadav and Sadaqat Khan, the other accused in the case, are still languishing in jail. Sadaqat’s bail plea was rejected, for the second time, by the Indore district court on Tuesday.

Faruqui, 28, was arrested along with Nalin Yadav, Prakhar Vyas, Priyam Vyas and Edwin Anthony on January 1 for the alleged objectionable remarks and for “hurting religious sentiments” at a show in Indore, on a complaint by Eklavya Gaud, the son of BJP MLA Malini Gaud. The next day, Faruqui’s friend Sadakat Khan was held when he went to meet him in court.

The MLA’s son alleged that objectionable comments were made about Hindu deities and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during Faruqui’s comedy show.