Mumbai Court Grants Bail To Sameet Thakkar, Likely To Be Released Soon

The Magistrate Court, Bandra granted bail to Thakkar in a case registered at BKC Cyber Cell. There are two other FIRs registered against Thakkar for alleged "objectionable tweets". He was arrested on October 24, 2020 from Rajkot by officers of the Sitabuldi Police Station, Nagpur.

Although the Supreme Court today refused to entertain the petition filed by Thakkar along with an application seeking interim bail and consolidation of proceedings in all three FIRs to Nagpur, Thakkar was asked to approach the High Court.

However, later in the day, the Magistrate Court in Bandra granted him bail. His lawyer Advocate Raspal Singh Renu confirmed that Thakkar will be released today, most likely in an hour.

On July 1, 2020, a complaint came to be filed against Thakkar at Nagpur by one Nitin Tiwari, a Shiv Sena functionary for allegedly posting some objectionable tweets against Uddhav Thackeray. Another complaint came to be filed against the petitioner for allegedly posting some objectionable tweets, with VP Road Police Station, Mumbai by Dharmendra Mishra, who is an Advocate and also a Shiv Sena functionary. Another complaint was filed at BKC Cyber Cell. FIRs were registered in all the above complaints for offences under provisions of IPC and IT Act.

Sameet Thakkar filed writ petitions before the Bombay High Court seeking protection from arrest. He was arrested on October 24, 2020 from Rajkot by the Sitabuldi Police Station, Nagpur. After securing his transit bail from the Rajkot Court, the police took Thakkar to Nagpur and produced him before the Nagpur Magistrate Court on October 26.

Thereafter, Thakkar was remanded to police custody till October 30, 2020, which was further extended till November 2.

On November 2, the Nagpur Magistrate Court granted judicial custody of Thakkar. However, a bail application was filed immediately and the petitioner was granted bail by the Magistrate Court in connection with the Nagpur FIR. But as soon as the petitioner was granted bail, he was immediately arrested by the officers of VP Road Police Station, Mumbai.

Thereafter, on November 3, 2020, Thakkar was produced before the Girgaon Magistrate Court and was remanded to police custody till November 9, 2020. Thereafter, his judicial custody was granted.

On November 10, Thakkar was granted bail in connection with the FIR at VP Road police station. Again, as soon as the petitioner secured bail, he was arrested by the BKC Cyber Police. The next day on November 11, the petitioner was produced before the Esplanade Court by the BKC Cyber Police Station. The Esplanade Court granted police custody of the petitioner till November 13 which was extended further till November 16.