Nikita Mehrotra
15 January 2021
Munawar Faruqui has been charged under s. 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), as well as s. 269 (unlawful or negligent act likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life). The complainant's lawyer claims that no permission had be sought by local authorities to host the event. Therefore, despite the lack of evidence, its possible that their bail plea has been denied on those grounds.
Since his bail plea has been rejected by the High Court, bail could be granted on the grounds of the nature of offence, character of accused etc., under sec. 436 of CrPC.
Assuming the allegations against Munawar are true, he may be charged for defamation. However, in my opinion, it seems very unlikely since there is no evidence of any such act. Further, grounds for defamation ought to be looked into while charging him, as he is alleged to be 'insulting' the minister, and not make 'false claims'.
