Delhi High Court Denies Anticipatory Bail To YouTuber Ajeet Bharti In SC/ST Act Case

Justice Saurabh Banerjee dismissed Bharti’s pre-arrest bail plea.

The Court had on September 16 reserved its order on the plea after hearing the submissions of the counsel for Bharti, the Delhi Police and complainant Azad.

Bharti had approached the High Court after a trial court here refused to grant him pre-arrest bail in the case on September 7.

The plea was opposed by the Delhi Police and the complainant.

While the counsel for the police had contended that the words allegedly used by the accused directly insult a particular caste, Azad's lawyer opposed the anticipatory bail plea, saying the purported remarks were derogatory and intentional.

However, Bharti's counsel sought relief, saying that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (SC/ST Act) was not attracted as there was no intentional insult or humiliation and the YouTuber's remarks had to be viewed in the context they were made.

Azad, the Bhim Army chief, in a complaint to the Delhi Police, has alleged that Bharti made caste-based, abusive, derogatory and humiliating statements against him, the members of the Scheduled Caste community and B R Ambedkar on social media.

The FIR was registered under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The trial court, while denying anticipatory bail, had said the ingredients of the offence under the SC/ST Act were prima facie disclosed in the material before it, which bars granting pre-arrest bail to an accused.