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The Madhya Pradesh High Court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to a man accused of uploading objectionable cartoons of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS workers on social media, saying it was a gross misuse of freedom of speech.

A First Information Report was registered against Hemant Malviya, a city-based amateur cartoonist, at Lasudiya police station here in May on the complaint of local lawyer and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker Vinay Joshi.

Malviya hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and disturbed communal harmony by uploading objectionable material on social media, the complaint said.

The FIR mentioned various `objectionable’ posts including allegedly inappropriate comments on Lord Shiva as well as cartoons, videos, photographs and comments regarding Modi, RSS workers and others.

Justice Subodh Abhyankar of the Indore bench of the high court dismissed Malviya’s application for pre-arrest or anticipatory bail on July 3 after hearing arguments.

“…on the face of it, the conduct of the applicant in depicting the RSS, which is a Hindu organisation, along with the Prime Minister of this country in the aforesaid caricature, coupled with his endorsement of a rather demeaning remark, dragging unnecessarily the name of lord Shiva in the comments tagged to it, is nothing but the sheer misuse of the freedom of speech and expression as enshrined under Art 19(1)(a) of the Constitution…,” said the court.

“…the post becomes more unsettling when the aforementioned derogatory lines involving Lord Shiva are also added to it, and which have also been favorably endorsed by the applicant himself who is also encouraging other people to experiment with the said caricature, which certainly cannot be said to be made in good taste or faith,” the HC further said.

It was apparent that it was a deliberate and malicious attempt to outrage religious feelings, the judge said, adding that Malviya “clearly overstepped the threshold of freedom of speech and expression”.

“In view of the same, this Court is of the considered opinion that the custodial interrogation of the applicant would be necessary,” the high court added.

Malviya’s lawyer argued that his client only posted a cartoon, but he could not be held responsible for the comments posted on it by other Facebook users.

The FIR accused him of posting indecent and objectionable material with the intention of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus and tarnishing the RSS’s image.

Police have invoked Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 196 (acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony between different communities), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) as well as section 67-A (publishing or transmitting in electronic form any sexually explicit material) of the Information Technology Act against the accused.