Delhi HC Grants Anticipatory Bail To Ajaz Khan In Case Over Objectionable Social Media Post

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to Big Boss fame Ajaz Khan. Delhi Police's Cyber Police Station have registered an FIR over objectionable post on social media against a YouTuber and his family.

This case has been filed by a woman and his son, a YouTuber.

The Delhi HC said, "The freedom of 'speech' and 'expression' granted by the Constitution under Article 19 must be exercised within the bounds of the reasonable restrictions it places. When the speech crosses the line into insult, humiliation or incitement, it collides with the right to dignity."

Justice Ravinder Dudeja granted anticipatory bail to Ajaz Khan, subject to furnishing a bail bond of Rs 30,000 and one surety in the event of his arrest.

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The High Court granted anticipatory bail to Ajaz Khan after considering the fact that the digital devices being in the custody of the Bombay Police and the petitioner's undertaking to cooperate in the investigation and give his voice sample before the FSL, tilts the balance in favour of the petitioner.

"Accordingly, in the event of arrest, petitioner shall be released on furnishing a personal bond of Rs. 30,000 with one surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the Arresting Officer or Investigating Officer or SHO," Justice Ravinder Dudeja ordered on October 9.

While granting anticipatory bail, the high court imposed conditions, including that the accused shall surrender his passport before the investigating officer and shall not leave the country without prior permission of the trial court. He shall cooperate in providing his voice samples to the investigating agency as and when directed.

While disposing of the petition, the High Court advised to use social media with caution.

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Justice Dudeja said, "The internet has made knowledge easily accessible by intensifying its circulation. With this, however, it has also brought a large audience of every age group. Thus, any content on the internet is porous and accessible to a large audience. Every content on the internet must be uploaded with great caution, especially when the uploader has a large audience and exercises influence in society."

The High Court noted that both the petitioner and the son of the complainant are social media influencers, having a large set of audience. The audience may be influenced by the material posted by them, and thus even if the content is deleted after it is posted by them, it would reach a large set of audience, thereby leading to republishing of the same content/sparking a debate over the content among their followers, which eventually affects the victim.

"Thereby, one should cautiously use social media before posting any content, as it might adversely affect not only the particular individual but their respective fans also at the same time," Justice Dudeja said.

Anticipatory bail plea for Ajaz Khan was filed through Advocate Khalid Akhtar and Mohd. Shadan.

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His anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the trial court on August 5.

This case arises out of reposting on Instagram by the petitioner of a video originally created and uploaded on YouTube by the complainant's son titled "A DAY WITH NAJAYAZ KHAN".

It was stated that the said video contains multiple offensive, defamatory, and obscene references to the Petitioner, including derogatory remarks, obscene gestures, and false imputations.

The Petitioner neither created, scripted, nor endorsed the video, and it was already in the public domain before the repost. The Petitioner promptly deleted the reposted content, the plea had said.

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Ajaz Khan was called by the police many times to join the investigation, but he failed to do so. It was stated that Khan was not aware of the issuance of the first notice. He only became aware about during the arguements before the trial court.

It was also stated that after second notice, Khan sent an email to seeking some time to appear.

It was also stated that he has joined investigation pursuant to the Order of Bombay High Court in another case registered at Thane Maharashtra.

The brief facts of the case is that the son of the Complainant who is a social media influencer, having about 16 million followers on Youtube and several million followers on various other social media handles, made a 35 minutes video titled "a day with najayaz khan" and posted the same on several social media handles, including "youtube", wherein he mimicked the applicant using all sort of derogatory words, abuses, obscene gestures and in its aftermath, the applicant (Khan) made a retaliatory Video.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and auto-generated from an agency feed.)