By Meher Pandey,
A 19-year-old man who was arrested last month for allegedly making hate speeches has been granted bail by a Haryana court on Monday. The man allegedly made comments urging the abduction and killing of girls from a particular religious community at a gathering attended by Haryana BJP spokesperson and Karni Sena president Suraj Pal Amu.
The accused is the same person who fired on anti-citizenship law protesters near Delhi’s Jamia Millia University in January last year, injuring one student.
Another court in Haryana had earlier denied bail to the accused, saying its “conscience was utterly shocked” on viewing a video recording of the incident.
“Freedom of speech is an integral part of any democratic country… however, this freedom has reasonable restrictions. None can be allowed to ignite fire… because he has freedom of speech and can direct hatred towards a particular group or religious community,” the court had said in its previous observation, adding, “…these kind of persons… who, if given a chance, would organise a mass murder to kill innocent lives based on their own religious hatred.”
It had also said that “such hate-mongers cannot walk freely without fear”.
The accused was charged with attacks upon the religion of a particular group and for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage a group’s religious feelings.
He was out on bail after being arrested in January last year for firing upon a crowd of anti-CAA protestors in Delhi. He was only 17 then.
This story first appeared on ndtv.com