Overview

• Justice Subodh Abhyankar rejected Hemant Malviya’s anticipatory bail plea on July 3 and directed his custody for interrogation.
• The court found that the Facebook post misused Article 19(1)(a) by intentionally outraging Hindu sentiments and risking social harmony.
• The caricature showed an RSS worker with exposed shorts receiving an injection from Prime Minister Modi alongside a derogatory reference to Lord Shiva and an invitation to share the image.
• Malviya is charged under Sections 196, 299, 302, 352 and 353 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 67A of the Information Technology Act for promoting enmity, insulting religion and distributing explicit content.
• His defense argued the cartoon was protected satire and that he was not responsible for third-party comments, but the court deemed his actions deliberate and declined to apply Supreme Court arrest safeguards.