Court Grants Bail To Man Accused Of Spreading Fake News Regarding State Direct Recruitment Exam ‘Scam’: Gauhati High Court
The Gauhati HC on 29th September 2022 granted absolute bail to Victor Das who was accused of spreading fake news regarding Assam Direct Recruitment Exam ‘Scam’ so as to derail the entire exam procedure. In the matter of Case title – Victor Das v. The State of Assam, Case No. : Bail Appln./2349/2022 presided over by Honourable MR. Justice Robin Phukan.
FACTS OF THE CASE
Here it may be noted that Das was arrested on Sept 9, 2022, forwarded to judicial custody on 10th Sept 2022, and was granted interim bail on 16th Sept 2022 by the HC, now on 29th Sept 2022, the interim bail was made absolute by the bench of Justice Robin Phukan.
Das was arrested on charges of ostensibly spreading rumors about a ‘scam’ in the recruitment process to fill up over 26,000 vacant posts in various departments. Importantly, he had made an unnerving allegation that certain lobbies of individuals had been demanding money from gripped candidates for securing a backdoor entry into the posts to be filled up by the recently be over by the Assam Direct Recruitment Exam for Grade-III & Grade-IV posts.
Correspondingly, an inquiry was started and it was found that no incident, as ostensible by Das, had taken place, and in the contrary, it was found Das was actively spreading falsehood & rumours via his official Twitter account & he had made unfounded & unsubstantiated claims to introduce mass delusions among the public.
It was also ostensible by him that the question papers of the exam had got leaked prior to the exam had taken place, nevertheless, during the inquiry, no such evidence of leaking of question papers had been found & the exam was held in fair & transparent manner.
Therefore, finding that Das had intentionally & maliciously published fake news & started a misinformation campaign with criminal conspiracy to derail the entire exam procedure, an FIR was filed against him under Sections 1208/505/153/153A/384/511 of the IPC. Therefore, seeking bail in the matter, Das moved the HC.
JUDGEMENT
He was granted interim bail on 16th Sept 2022. Now, on 29th Sept the Court observed the materials collected in the case diary, and was amiable about the extant of the ingredients, which are needed to make out offences under which the case has been registered.
In that view of the matter and the materials so far at hand in the case diary, the Court opined that in the interest of the investigation, custodial detention of the accused applicant was unwarranted and, consequently, the Court made the interim bail granted vide order dated 16th Sept 2022 absolute.
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JUDGEMENT REVIEWED BY YAKSHU JINDAL.