Social media influencer and YouTuber Ajit Bharti has approached the Delhi High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the SC/ST Act case registered against him over his comments concerning Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, after a trial court denied him relief earlier this month.
Bharti has challenged the September 7 order of a Delhi trial court which dismissed his anticipatory bail application. The trial court had declined Bharti’s plea after holding that the material placed on record prima facie disclosed the ingredients of an offence under Section 3(1)(r) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Partap Singh Laler of Patiala House Courts had passed the order on September 7 in connection with an FIR registered at North Avenue police station.
After examining the FIR, transcript and other material placed before it, the trial court concluded that a prima facie case under Section 3(1)(r) of the SC/ST Act was made out and dismissed the application. The court had, however, clarified that its observations were confined to the disposal of the anticipatory bail plea and should not be construed as an expression of opinion on the merits of the case.
“For the foregoing reasons, this Court finds that the ingredients of an offence under Section 3(1)(r) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 are prima facie disclosed on the material on record,” the trial court had observed while dismissing the plea.
