Ranchi court drops ‘donate Quran’ condition for girl’s bail
18 Jul 2019
A day after a Ranchi court directed a 19-year-old college girl to donate Quran as a pre-condition for her bail in a case of alleged hurting of religious sentiments, the court on Wednesday modified its order and allowed her regular bail.
The court directed Richa Bharti, who was arrested for posting an offensive social media post, to furnish a bail bond of Rs7,000 and two sureties of like amount each.
Richa Bharti, a B Com student, was arrested on 12 July following a complaint filed by the Anjuman Committee against her at the Pithora Police Station for sharing an objectionable post on Facebook, which allegedly hurt religious sentiments.
On Monday, the court directed Bharti to submit one copy of the Quran to the local Anjuman Committee in the presence of police authorities, and four more copies to different libraries in the city.
While the Anjuman Committee had welcomed the order, there was a huge outcry on social media against the order on Tuesday.
Bharti, on her part, said while she respected the court, she had done nothing wrong and that she would consult her family and her lawyer and appeal in the high court against the lower court order.
Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Manish Kumar Singh modified his bizarre order after public outcry against the judiciary itself hurting the girl’s religious sentiments through its order.
The Investigating Order (IO) cum-officer-in-charge of Pithoria police station is also reported to have submitted to the court that the Quran donation may be done away with “because of difficulties in implementation”.