A local court in Jharkhand’s Ranchi has granted bail to 19-year-old Richa Bharti, a college student arrested for sharing an offensive social media post targeting Muslims.
According to The Hindu, Ms. Bharti, a B.Com student at a local college, was arrested on July 12 after the Anjuman Committee filed a complaint against her at Pithora Police Station for sharing an objectionable post on Facebook, which reportedly hurt religious sentiments.
Judicial Magistrate Manish Kumar Singh granted conditional bail to Bharti, and asked her to submit one copy of Quran to the local Anjuman Committee in the presence of police authorities. She was also asked to submit four more copies of the holy book to different libraries in Ranchi. Magistrate's order seeked receipt/acknowledgement of the donations within a fortnight.
“Directing her to donate the books within a fortnight in presence of police authorities and submit a compliance report, the court granted bail to Richa on the condition that she would furnish two sureties of Rs 7,000 each,” said Richa’s lawyer Ramparvesh Singh.
Richa Bharti, though acknowleding that she violated community’s sentiments, is refusing court order to distribute Quran, and has decided to move the High Court.
"I have only shared the Facebook post. The person who posted it should have been arrested first. I will appeal against the court order in the High Court. Today I have been asked to distribute Quran and tomorrow I may be asked to accept Islam," Richa told reporters.
Meanwhile, the controversy has kicked up a social media furore demanding the sacking of Judicial Magistrate Manish Singh, and twitterati are aggressively posting using various #tags, and seeking donations for Bharti's legal cost.
