Delhi High Court Grants Transit Anticipatory Bail To UP BJP Spokesperson Prashant Kumar Umrao

Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted transit anticipatory bail till March 20 to lawyer and Uttar Pradesh spokesperson of BJP Prashant Kumar Umrao in an FIR lodged against him by Tamil Nadu police for allegedly spreading false information in a tweet on the alleged attacks against the migrant workers from Bihar in the state.

"I am of the view that the applicant should be granted reasonable time to approach the territorial jurisdictional court. Tomorrow is a holiday on account of Holi," said Justice Jasmeet Singh, while allowing Umrao's application for transit anticipatory bail.

The court granted relief to Umrao subject to him furnishing his permanent address to counsel appearing for State of Tamil Nadu.

"For the reasons stated above, the application is allowed and the applicant is granted transit anticipatory bail for a period of 13 days i.e. till 20.03.2023 to approach the competent territorial jurisdictional court, subject to the applicant informing his permanent residential address and his mobile number which shall be kept operational at all times and his live Google pin location to the IO concerned through the counsel, Dr. Aristotle."

As the counsel appearing for Umrao sought transit anticipatory bail for a period of 12 weeks, the court orally said:

“There is no question…you have to go the Chennai, go to Chennai. How can I give you for 12 weeks? I can only grant you transit anticipatory bail for approaching the concerned court. Be reasonable. It cannot be such a luxury. You have to go tomorrow, day after tomorrow, move the application in the coming week ….I can give you for a week.”

Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, representing the State of Tamil Nadu, said there are serious charges against Umrao. However, Justice Singh said the court cannot go into merits of the case.

"There are direct flights to Trivandrum and there are one stop over flights to Thoothukudi. Hence, the applicant should have approached the territorial jurisdictional court by now," Hegde submitted

Responding to the contention regarding charges, Justice Singh remarked: “I cannot go into that. I only have to ensure that he gets redressal by approaching the court. That is my limited jurisdiction. I only have to ensure that he gets access to justice.”

Umrao, a Delhi based lawyer and Standing Counsel for the State of Goa in Supreme Court, had sought relief in an FIR registered under sections 153, 153A, 504 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

The plea placed reliance on a news article published by various news agencies stating that migrant labourers from Bihar are being killed in Tamil Nadu for speaking Hindi language. Alt News has reported that multiple unrelated videos are viral as attack on migrant labourers in Tamil Nadu.

Umrao in the petition said that he posted a tweet on February 23 in good faith to address the plight of migrant workers. In his tweet, he claimed: “15 people of Bihar were hanged in a room in Tamil Nadu for speaking Hindi and 12 have sadly died. After that, Tejaswi Yadav shamelessly celebrated birthday party with Stalin in Tamil Nadu.” The police have booked Umrao for the tweet.

The plea itself submitted that after the news was fact checked by certain agencies and it was revealed that the video clips shared on social media platforms pertained to a different time period and did not relate to any incident related to the violence upon migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.

It was also found out that the news regarding the Bihari migrant workers hanged to death for speaking Hindi was fake, the plea added. 

While Umrao deleted the tweet, he claimed in court that he is innocent, is merely being made a scapegoat and has not committed any intentional acts punishable under sections 153, 153A, 504, and 505 of IPC.

“The Applicant himself became a victim of fake news and only published the aforementioned tweet to raise concerns regarding the news which was being covered by prominent news agencies and personalities,” the plea said.

It was also submitted that Umrao’s right to liberty would stand violated at the hands of State of Tamil Nadu if he is arrested without any reasonable opportunity to avail his legal remedies owing to his residence in Delhi.

“The Applicant is a victim of political rivalry as the Applicant is associated with a different political party,” the plea said.

Title: PRASHANT KUMAR UMRAO versus STATE OF TAMIL NADU & ANR.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 211

Click Here To Read Order