MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday set aside the detention order passed by Madurai collector invoking the National Security Act (NSA) against YouTuber Manish Kashyap, who was arrested on charges of spreading fake videos about alleged attacks on Bihari migrants in Tamil Nadu.
Kashyap, who is said to be a resident of West Champaran district in Bihar, was initially booked by the Bihar police for the above offence. After his surrender on March 18, he was interrogated by the economic offences unit of Bihar police and was later remanded to judicial custody there in Beur central jail near Patna.
Meanwhile, on March 10, Madurai District Cyber Crime Police registered an FIR against him, for the same offence, under various sections including 153, 153(A), 504, 505(1)(b), 505(1)(c), 505(2) of IPC and 66(D) of Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008. On April 5, 2023, the Madurai collector invoked NSA against Kashyap, challenging his younger brother Tribhuwan Kumar Tiwari to file a habeas corpus petition in the high court bench.
Tiwari alleged that the detention order was passed 'hurriedly' and 'mechanically', within five days of Kashyap's arrest. He also stated that no efforts had been taken by his brother to come out on bail as apprehended by the authorities in the detention order. He further raised several technical grounds including that there were several differences and discrepancies in the Hindi, Tamil and English versions of the grounds of detention which, he claimed, prevented Kashyap from making effective representation against the order before the Advisory Board.
After an elaborate hearing, a bench of justices M Sundar and R Sakthivel set aside the detention order on Friday. A detailed order copy is yet to be released.