Teen ordered 2 month break from social media as bail condition

Published on:

07 Aug 2020, 12:39 pm

On August 4, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed an 18-year-old accused to remove himself from WhatsApp, Facebook, and other social media platforms for two months, as a bail condition.
It also directed the accused to submit the report of his digital detoxification at the concerned police station every month and any default would dis-entitle him from the benefit of bail.
A single-judge bench presided by Justice Anand Pathak was hearing a bail plea filed by a student of Agriculture Science who is accused in an FIR registered under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294 (obscene acts and songs), 506 (criminal intimidation), 327 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort property) and 329 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extort property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The accused had been suffering confinement since June 24.
The advocate for the accused submitted that he had been falsely implicated in the case and had already learnt his lesson the hard way by being confined since June 24. Given the challenges posed by Covid-19, the accused requested the court to consider his case sympathetically.
Acceding to the submission of the accused, the court ordered that the accused be released on bail on his furnishing personal bond of Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousand only) along with one solvent surety of like amount to the satisfaction of trial Court and that he would have to install Arogya Setu App, if not already installed.
The HC also directed the accused to plant 5 fruit trees and protect all the plants in his neighbourhood and to submit photos of the plants within 30 days of his release.