The Supreme Court today sought responses from the Central government and the States of Bihar & Tamilnadu on a plea by Youtuber Manish Kashyap seeking consolidation of First Information Reports (FIR) registered against him in the two States for allegedly sharing fake news about migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.
The Division bench of Justices Krishna Murari and Sanjay Karol asked for the response of the governments after hearing the parties and listed the case for further hearing on April 21.
The Court ordered that “Learned Counsel accepts notice on behalf of the state of Bihar. Let the Union of India be served through a central agency. Let reply be filed within a week.”
The plea filed by Kashyap sought clubbing of FIRs against him in Bihar and Tamil Nadu. Kashyap also sought interim anticipatory bail.
He is currently in the custody of the Tamil Nadu Police in connection with sharing of a fake video regarding the alleged attack on migrant workers from Bihar in Tamil Nadu. Earlier, the police took him for questioning after getting a remand order from a Madurai court.
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave appearing for Kashyap, stated that he was facing 5 prosecutions in two states.
The senior counsel submitted that “Tamil Nadu lodged two FIRs… and the Bihar one bail was denied.. one offense cannot give rise to multiple proceedings and it was held so in Arnab Goswami case.”
Hence, he sought a direction for the FIR in Bihar to be treated as the lead case.
Dave Stated that “Let there be hands-off approach in other FIRs… I am being taken to Tamil Nadu where I do not even understand the language.” Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the State of Tamil Nadu said that the fake news resulted in deaths and wasn’t a small matter.
He further added “Let us file a reply. He is already detained under NSA. The URL is different and offenses are different.”
The senior counsel then asked the Court to allow the State two weeks time for filing a reply.
Therefore, Kashyap’s counsel opposed the same, stating that it was too long as he was being harassed every day.
“2 weeks is too much… I am being harassed everyday.. to pursue my bail in Bihar.. I will be incarcerated in Tamil Nadu… How can NSA be invoked.. This is astounding..” On the basis of these submissions, the Court issued notice and agreed to hear the case next week.
