Despite various precedence in cases in the Supreme Court and High Courts condemning arrest of people for posting their religious views and understandings, the arrest of another atheist youngster
Coimbatore: Once again a post in social media criticising religion which comes under freedom of expression has been wrongly misconstrued as one that is propelling enmity between two communities and pushed a 28-year-old young man from Coimbatore behind bars.
Even more shocking is the case has been taken suo moto by the Coimbatore City Police who have booked Aneesh Jasy ST from Kuniyamuthur under various sections for allegedly inciting violence between two groups and thereby disrupting harmony.
“It is astonishing that the police have found a seemingly low profile Facebook page and pushed a young man into remand when even both communities have not filed complaints on him. Despite various precedents in cases in the Supreme Court and High Courts condemning arrest of people for posting their religious views and understandings, the arrest of another atheist youngster has triggered much angst over the authorities”, quote human rights activists.
“In his Facebook page, Aneesh an ex-Muslim atheist has been regularly posting content and memes against beliefs of all religions. However, he being a Muslim, several of his posts questioned the rights of women and other such beliefs of Muslims which are pretty much not unique to him and available in the millions in the open web.”, say friends close to Aneesh.
According to the FIR, Aneesh has been posting content promoting enmity between two groups and derogatory messages on Prophet Mohammed, the Kuniyamuthur Sub-Inspector V Ganesh Kumar who is the complainant had conducted an inquiry with Aneesh on December 29,2021 and subsequently filed an FIR under IPC sections 295 (A), 153 A (1) (c), 505 (2). On December 30, Aneesh was produced before the magistrate and sent to remand at Perundurai Sub-jail. A bail plea filed by his lawyers on January 5 was dismissed.
Clueless on the state of her husband, wife of Aneesh says “it all happened on December 29 evening when two cops in un-uniform came to our residence and picked up Aneesh for an inquiry. Even when questioned multiple times they said it has nothing to do with him but was about his co-worker.”
Advocates handling such cases have said that this kind of arrest has been a regular trend for Police to arrest people without giving proper reasons or access to an advocate using false premises which is against the law.
“The cops collected his phone and said its part of the inquiry. They said he will be back by 10 mins and it is 10 days now, since I saw Aneesh”, said his wife who is a Hindu and married Aneesh in 2018.
“Every minute after he was taken away by the cops was nightmarish. I had no information on him till night and all attempts to contact him over phone went in vain. At last around 10:30 PM, Aneesh called me and said the investigation is almost over. He told me to stay with the kid. Even after sun rise as Aneesh did not come home, I informed his mother who rushed to Kuniyamuthur police station to learn of the issue.
She then informed me that Aneesh has been kept in custody at the station over a meme mocking Islam in his Facebook page. Later, when I inquired with the cops in the station, they said an FIR might be filed against him followed by an arrest. Barely few seconds I spoke to Aneesh at the station. Later, he was taken away for remand”, she recalled.
As the lawyers have explained to her on the SC and HC precedents to not arrest people for expression of their thoughts against theism, she along with her 2-year-old child have been relying solely on the justice system to release her husband who is the sole bread-winner of the family.
Commenting on why his arrest has to be condemned, a senior lawyer who has dealt several cases of similar nature said, "That the common feature in both the Sections, viz., Sections 153A and 505 (2), being promotion of feeling of enmity, hatred or ill-will "between different" religious or racial or linguistic or regional groups or castes and communities, it is necessary that at least two such groups or communities should be involved. Further, it was observed that merely inciting the feeling of one community or group without any reference to any other community or group cannot attract either of the
two sections.
Despite several precedents for many years, police in Tamilnadu and particularly in Coimbatore have regularly filed such cases on people and remanded them. Though almost always the accused in these cases might get bail after 20 days, that 20-day jail term is basically the goal of those who file these cases.”
Activists have argued that “it is unfortunate that police has suo moto filed these cases and the magistrate has remanded and denied the bail plea of Aneesh despite having several precedents for such cases.”
While progressive and rationalist groups have not taken up this cause yet, many activists and rationalists have started tweeting #justiceforaneesh on social media pages demanding release of Aneesh immediately appealing to the chief minister of Tamilnadu.