New Delhi [India], September 2 (HBTV): The Supreme Court granted anticipatory bail to Indore-based cartoonist Hemant Malviya, who was booked for posting objectionable caricatures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) on social media during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria disposed of the matter after Malviya’s counsel informed the court that his client had posted an apology on his Facebook and Instagram accounts over the objectionable posts.

‘When the statement is made before this court by the counsel that the apology has been posted on Facebook and Instagram, we do not see any justifiable ground to disbelieve the said statement,’ the court noted in its order.

The bench, however, clarified that if Malviya does not cooperate with the investigation, state authorities are at liberty to seek cancellation of the bail granted to him.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted interim protection to Malviya, which was subsequently extended after directing him to file an apology in Hindi within 10 days of the order.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court had on July 3 rejected Malviya’s anticipatory bail plea, observing that he had misused the freedom of speech and ought to have exercised discretion while drawing the caricature.

In his plea, Malviya stated that the cartoon in question was created during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic when social media was rife with misinformation and fear regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines. He said the caricature was a satirical commentary on remarks by a public figure suggesting that some vaccines were ‘safe like water’, even though their efficacy had not undergone rigorous clinical trials.

He further claimed that the caricature was his artistic imagination of a common man being vaccinated by a public representative and had been in public circulation on social media for over four years. Malviya added that he had shared the post to show that his cartoons were freely available for public use and expression, and that he did not endorse the commentary attached to the cartoon but acknowledged its use.

(ANI)