Arrested over Gyanvapi post, DU associate professor Ratan Lal gets bail

Lal was produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Siddhartha Malik at the Tiz Hazari court by the Delhi police, who sought his 14-day judicial custody.

DU professor Ratan Lal after being produced in a Delhi court on Saturday.

Lal’s lawyers had moved his bail application before the CMM arguing that his arrest was in violation of Supreme Court guidelines in the Arnesh Kumar judgment and that he did not incite anyone through his social media post.

Additional public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, who appeared on behalf of the police, told the court that “prima facie some comments have been passed that have the potential to disturb the public tranquility”.

“Accordingly the FIR was registered..the most important aspect, not expected from such an educated person,was after making such type of remarks, he has not stopped there, he has been defending himself through different videos uploaded on YouTube,” Shrivastava argued.

The prosecutor addressed the circumstances surrounding Lal’s arrest and cited a Delhi High Court order dealing with the case of a smuggler and said that if there was an apprehension that a person was going to commit a similar offence then it empowered the police to proceed with the arrest without serving a notice.

Lal’s lawyers told the court that he was “an authority on Ambedkar” and a person of his “stature and intellect” had “not created any enmity” or “called for violence.”

His lawyers argued that rather Lal accorded respect to the Hindu god Shiva. “Shiva is not the property of a certain section of society. Would he incite his own people ? He is a Shiv devotee himself,” Lal’s lawyer submitted.