Aqib Ahmad
Srinagar, Jul 7: A court here in Srinagar today dismissed a petition by a student, one among the seven accused in alleged case of circulation of obscene pictures and videos of a Sikh girl here last year, seeking exemption for “indefinite time” from court appearance so that he could pursue further studies in Australia.
The plea was filed by one Arandeep Singh of Mehjoor Nagar here, one of the accused persons in a case, FIR No. 18/2022 under section 66E, 67 IT Act.
The case came to be registered by the Cyper police station, Kashmir Zone Srinagar, upon a written complaint from a resident of Mehjoor Nagar Srinagar alleging therein that on 22 February 2022 around 10:59 PM he received a call on WhatsApp number with caller mentioning that there is a laptop and pen drive present outside their residence. On 27th February 2022, the family received a letter in which it was mentioned that ‘one minute and six second’ video is viral and contains obscene pictures and video. On 19th March 2022 they received a call from a known source that obscene pictures and videos of the girl had gone viral. Upon complaint, the cyber police registered the case and after investigation filed the charge-sheet against seven accused persons including Singh.
In his plea, Singh had sought personal exemption for future hearings till further order on the ground that he has to go to Australia as he has got admission in RMIT University of the country.
“No doubt that it is the right of every person to get education anywhere but herein the situation is that the accused wants to get admission outside the country and the chargesheet against him …is pending disposal before this court and he is facing trial in the offences which are against the society and women folk,” the court of Sub Judge/Special Mobile Magistrate Srinagar (Railway Magistrate Kashmir), Ahsan Malik, said.
The Court observed that Singh is not a student of the RMIT University of Australia but he wants to get admission in the varsity after allegedly committing the offence as “transpired from the records available”.
“In the prayer part of the instant application, the accused/applicant herein did not pray for permission from this court for leaving India but he seeks only his exemption from personal appearance for future hearings in this case for the purpose of going to Australia,” the court said and ruled that the exemption for unlimited period cannot be granted.
