Gujrat man gets bail in rape threat case

Mumbai: Almost seven months after the Mumbai police arrested Girishkumar Maheshwari (36) from Ahmedabad for threatening Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi’s minor daughter with rape, the Bombay high court has granted the accused bail.

Ms Chaturvedi was threatened after a fake quote attributed to her with regard to the Mandsaur rape went viral. The fake quote showed that she stood in support of the accused of that heinous crime.

Maheshwari, through advocates Prakash Wagh and Vikas Kharat, contended before Justice Prakash Deu Naik that the probe in the case was over and the police had already seized his mobile phone and laptop, and filed a charge sheet. It was further contended that the accused did not forward the message to the minor girl and the provisions of the POCSO Act were not applicable in the case.

Advocate Wagh contended that the applicant was enraged with a quote, which supported a heinous crime and hence, the tweet was a result of protest and not lust. It was argued that the applicant was not aware if the complainant had any daughter or not and in such circumstance, he was entitled for bail.

The Goregaon police arrested Maheshwari on July 5, 2018 under sections 509 and 506(2) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information and Technology Act and also Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The action was taken after the complainant forwarded the email to the police, complaining that she had received a message on her Twitter account stating that he wanted to rape her daughter.

She also informed the police about some fake quote attributed to her and claimed that the intent behind the quote was to malign her and also wrong information was spread to create unrest.