Mumbai Court Grants Bail To Yash Kumar, Final Year Law Student Who Allegedly Created Abusive 'Clubhouse' Chatroom

A Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Mumbai has granted bail to Yash Kumar, a law student from Amity University arrested by the Mumbai Police in the Clubhouse App case for creating the chatroom in which abusive and objectionable remarks were made against women. Kumar is the first of three accused to be granted bail. The police arrested him from Faridabad on January 20, 2022. All three accused are booked for offences punishable u/s. 153A, 295A, 354A, 354D, & 509 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 r/w. Section 67 of Information and Technology Act, 2000. According to the FIR registered on January 19, the complainant alleged that her and her childhood friend's pictures were used in a chatroom. In addition, the police alleged that Kumar had created a chatroom called "Swati Jay Abdul" in October 2021 where derogatory statements were made. A co-accused created more chatrooms in which derogatory statements were made against Muslim Women, and objectionable pictures were shared. The two chatrooms had over 300 participants, it was alleged. Seeking bail through Advocates Gayatri Gokhale and Akshay Bafna, Kumar pleaded that he was falsely implicated in the case. They argued that Kumar was a 22-year-old studying at Amity University, with no criminal antecedents. "That the Applicant has not made any verbal and/or written derogatory and/or defamatory statement against any women and/or religion and/or community on any social media platform and the Applicant is being made a scapegoat for acts committed by other persons," the application read. Therefore, Kumar claimed that none of the sections were applicable against him. They submitted that the only allegation against Kumar was of creating the chatroom. The accusations of insulting women from a particular community, circulating their pictures, stalking them, and abusing them were attributed to the other accused. Kumar is neither a moderator nor a host in any of the chatrooms, they argued. Kumar's counsels denied that he had even created the chatroom. Instead, they argued that Kumar's picture has been misused by certain individuals using his identity to commit illegal acts. The accused has also reported the same to the respective social media platforms. Moreover, Kumar listed out his achievements to state that he has only contributed to the well-being of society and was focused on building his career and contributing to the legal community. "That the Applicant has been falsely roped in the present case and his entire future is at stake due to his incarceration." He claims to be involved in citizen rights centric writings and events. He claims to be a speaker in an LGBTQ awareness workshop as also the Convener, Legal Aid and Literacy Committee, helping migrant workers reach their homes safe and sound and organizing camps that help the underprivileged.

Mumbai Court Grants Bail To Yash Kumar, Final Year Law Student Who Allegedly Created Abusive 'Clubhouse' Chatroom

Sharmeen Hakim

He is first of the three accused to be granted bail.

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