Mumbai: Terming it as “extremely offensive” messages, the Bombay High Court has refused to quash an FIR registered against a local leader in Kolhapur in 2020 for allegedly sharing offensive messages on WhatsApp group.
The court dismissed the petition by Bal Maharaj alias Santosh Dattatraya Koli noting that the messages sent by him on WhatsApp group, comprising 182 persons from various castes and religions, were “extremely offensive and have an effect of hurting religious feelings”.
Koli has sought quashing of the FIR registered against him in May 2020 for promoting enmity between religious groups, deliberate and malicious insult of a religion and criminal intimidation by the Ichalkaranji police station in Kolhapur.
Initially, Koli claimed that the complainant had consented to quashing of the case, however, the complainant informed the bench that he not given any such consent. The court emphasised that even if the complainant had given consent, the case could not have been quashed as the offences are against the society.
“A bare reading of these messages show that it would hurt religious feelings of the members of a particular religion. We find them extremely offensive. They have an effect of hurting religious feelings,” a bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Neela Gokhale said on October 16. It said that the messages have an effect of promoting enmity, hatred and ill-will between two religions.
Koli’s plea contended that messages he had posted could not be read in isolation and that he had only replied to other messages in the group. He said there was no intention to hurt religious sentiments.
Refusing to accept the argument, the HC said Koli was fully aware of the fact that members of that religion were also members of that WhatsApp group and that these messages would offend their religious feelings.
“These messages had the tendency of creating public disorder and disturbance of law. Any person of reasonable prudence would feel offended by reading these messages,” the bench underlined. It added that Koli had committed serious offences and has to face consequences of his action and the probe in the case has to be taken to its logical end.
