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The Supreme Court today granted bail to a 30-year-old security guard challenging the Jharkhand High Court's refusal to grant him bail in a case arising from allegedly obscene and derogatory Facebook posts against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's wife, Kalpana Soren, who is a sitting MLA from Gandey.

A bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice Prasanna B. Varale observed that he has been incarcerated for over a year and the maximum sentence prescribed for the offences against him is three years imprisonment. The Court opined that custodial interrogation is not required.

The case arises from a Facebook account named "Adivasi Ladka Raju Oraon". According to the prosecution, the account was used to upload a photograph of Kalpana Soren along with obscene, vulgar and derogatory remarks. The prosecution case is that the post was noticed on August 28, 2025 and a police officer at the Cyber Crime Police Station, Ranchi, subsequently lodged the case on August 29, 2025 on the basis of his own statement.

Uraon was arrested on September 6, 2025 and has remained in judicial custody since then. The case has been registered under Sections 75 (sexual harassment), 78 (stalking), 79 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 356(2) (punishment for defamation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, besides Sections 66C (identity theft) and 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The Jharkhand High Court rejected Uraon's bail plea on April 17, 2026. Before the High Court, the State had opposed bail, arguing that Uraon used a fabricated digital identity to target a sitting woman MLA and the use of anonymity to launch abusive and gender-based attacks aggravated the seriousness of the allegations.

Before the Supreme Court, Uraon has argued that the High Court failed to properly consider his prolonged custody and the stage of the proceedings. His plea states that the investigation has been completed and the chargesheet has been filed. It further says that the prosecution's case rests on electronic evidence already in its possession and that there is no requirement for his continued custody.

The petitioner argues that there is no possibility of him tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses. He also submits that he has no criminal antecedents and that the High Court did not examine the statutory considerations under Section 483 BNSS, including the possibility of flight, tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses.

The plea further contends that the High Court rejected bail solely on the seriousness of the offence, which cannot be the sole ground for denying bail and as the court must consider the overall facts and circumstances.

The petitioner has also pointed out that he was granted bail in another case arising from the same alleged incident based on a complaint by Javed Ansari, the head of the Kanke Block Coordination Committee, on February 13, 2026. He contends that the two cases arose from the same offence and that the High Court failed to give due consideration to his custody since September 6, 2025. The plea also points out that neither case was registered at the instance of Kalpana Soren herself.

The Supreme Court has now issued notice to the State of Jharkhand on his plea against the High Court's bail rejection.

The petitioner was represented by Advocate Rahul Shyam Bhandari.

Case: Sahadev Uraon @ Sahadev Oraon v. State of Jharkhand, SL Crl. 15058/2026

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