Kolhapur court rejects Prashant Koratkar's anticipatory bail plea in case of promoting enmity

Kolhapur: The court of additional sessions judge D V Kashyap in the city on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Nagpur-based journalist Prashant Koratkar, who is facing arrest on charges of promoting enmity between two communities and deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings.
Public prosecutor Vivek Shukla confirmed the rejection of the anticipatory bail plea and said the full text of the court's order was expected to be released on Wednesday.
"After the order, Koratkar moved a plea seeking protection from arrest for seven days, but we contested the same, arguing that it will not be appropriate to grant such relief when his bail plea has been rejected. The court upheld our submission and rejected the second plea too," Shukla said.
The police are now under no restriction from arresting Koratkar and sources said a police team was to leave for Nagpur soon.
Koratkar's lawyer Siddharth Jadhav attended the proceedings through video conferencing. He could not be reached for comment regarding the next legal recourse available to Koratkar.
On Feb 26, the Juna Rajwada police filed a case against Koratkar regarding alleged provocative statements made about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in a threatening audio call to Kolhapur-based historian Indrajit Sawant.
The caller accused Sawant of being a biased historian after Sawant had countered the depiction of traitors in movie Chhava and blamed clerks or ministers belonging to a particular community for betrayal and capture of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj by Mughals in 1689.
Sawant, who attended the proceedings, later spoke to the media, stating that he hopes the police will now take swift action to arrest Koratkar. "Already he evaded arrest for many days till he got interim relief on March 1," said Sawant.
Asked about the allegation during the bail plea hearing that Koratkar tampered with his mobile phone before surrendering the same to the police, prosecutor Shukla said, "We will think about adding new BNS sections to the case at the time of filing of the chargesheet."
On March 1, the court had asked Koratkar to surrender his mobile handset and SIM card. The police brought to the notice of the court that the mobile handset had all data erased. The call detail records, however, showed that calls were made to Sawant on the night of February 25, totaling over six and a half minutes.
Kolhapur: The court of additional sessions judge D V Kashyap in the city on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Nagpur-based journalist Prashant Koratkar, who is facing arrest on charges of promoting enmity between two communities and deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings.
Public prosecutor Vivek Shukla confirmed the rejection of the anticipatory bail plea and said the full text of the court's order was expected to be released on Wednesday.
"After the order, Koratkar moved a plea seeking protection from arrest for seven days, but we contested the same, arguing that it will not be appropriate to grant such relief when his bail plea has been rejected. The court upheld our submission and rejected the second plea too," Shukla said.
The police are now under no restriction from arresting Koratkar and sources said a police team was to leave for Nagpur soon.
Koratkar's lawyer Siddharth Jadhav attended the proceedings through video conferencing. He could not be reached for comment regarding the next legal recourse available to Koratkar.
On Feb 26, the Juna Rajwada police filed a case against Koratkar regarding alleged provocative statements made about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in a threatening audio call to Kolhapur-based historian Indrajit Sawant.
The caller accused Sawant of being a biased historian after Sawant had countered the depiction of traitors in movie Chhava and blamed clerks or ministers belonging to a particular community for betrayal and capture of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj by Mughals in 1689.
Sawant, who attended the proceedings, later spoke to the media, stating that he hopes the police will now take swift action to arrest Koratkar. "Already he evaded arrest for many days till he got interim relief on March 1," said Sawant.
Asked about the allegation during the bail plea hearing that Koratkar tampered with his mobile phone before surrendering the same to the police, prosecutor Shukla said, "We will think about adding new BNS sections to the case at the time of filing of the chargesheet."
On March 1, the court had asked Koratkar to surrender his mobile handset and SIM card. The police brought to the notice of the court that the mobile handset had all data erased. The call detail records, however, showed that calls were made to Sawant on the night of February 25, totaling over six and a half minutes.