Amitha Muraleedharan
A single bench of Justice Ashok Menon in the Kerala High Court granted anticipatory bail till October 30 to three women accused of assaulting a YouTuber named Vijay P Nair over vulgar comments.
Advocate K. P Jayachandran, appearing for the accused – Dubbing Artist Bagyalakshmi, Diya Sana, and Sreelakshmi Arackal had stated that the non -bailable provision of section 452 and 329 of the Indian Penal Code, mentioned in the FIR, are not relevant to the case.
The lawyer also stated that the Kerala Government should bring an ordinance against cyber-attack towards women.
The public prosecutor, Suman Chakravarty, mentioned that granting them bail will be a wrong message to society.
The Court said, “Probably they did not have faith in the police and decided to do it themselves. That also needs to be taken into consideration.”
“But vigilantism cannot be encouraged”, said Justice Menon while reserving orders till October 30.
The attack took place on September 26. The three accused barged into the office of Vijay Nair and slapped him, abused him, and poured black oil on his face for making vulgar video against women.
The accused shot the visuals and also live-streamed it. The video of the attack become viral.
The Thampanoor police booked the women on a complaint by Vijay P Nair.
Furthermore, Nair was lodged for offences under the Information Technology Act, 2000, for promoting obscenity by posting vulgar videos and is in custody at present.
A district court in Thiruvananthapuram had previously rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by the accused women.
