New Delhi: Delhi University associate professor Ratan Lal, arrested last night over a social media post referring to claims about a ‘Shivling’ found inside Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque complex, was on Saturday granted bail on furnishing a bond of Rs 50,000 and surety on the like amount, ANI reported. This came after the associate professor, who works with the Hindu College, was produced before the Tis Hazari court in the national capital.
The associate professor was arrested by the officers of north Delhi’s Cyber Police Station under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295A (deliberate act to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The FIR against Ratan Lal was registered earlier on Tuesday night following a police complaint by a Delhi-based lawyer.
Advocate Vineet Jindal in his complaint said that the professor had recently shared a “derogatory, inciting and provocative tweet on the Shivling”, according to the news agency.
The statement made by the professor on his Twitter account is “instigating and provoking”, he stated in the complaint, as quoted by PTI.
The issue is very sensitive in nature and is pending before the court, the lawyer added in the complaint.
Defending his post earlier, Ratan Lal had said: “In India, if you speak about anything, someone or the other's sentiment will be hurt. So this is nothing new. I am a historian and have made several observations. As I wrote them down, I have used very guarded language in my post, and still this. I will defend myself."
Lal had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking two bodyguards carrying AK-56 rifles as he claimed that he is confronting death threats and is being attacked on social media.
“If this is not possible, then instruct the appropriate authority to issue a license of AK-56 rifle to him,” he said in his letter.