AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court granted anticipatory bail to Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani on Tuesday in a case filed against him for sharing a fake video on Twitter about a school.
Justice V M Pancholi granted the relief to Mevani in an FIR lodged by the principal of Valsad-based RMVM School after the latter shared the fake video on Twitter on May 20 showing a boy being beaten up by someone the MLA claimed was a teacher of the school.
Mevani had moved a petition challenging a Valsad sessions court's order rejecting his anticipatory bail plea.
The high court is also hearing a plea filed by Mevani seeking quashing of the FIR.
While sharing the video, Mevani had called the beating of the school student as "barbarism of worst form".
He had also posed a question to the PMO, asking, "@PMOIndia tell us what this is?" The court granted him anticipatory bail after he tendered an apology, accepting that he had "hurt the sentiment or the reputation of a school or a teacher" while forwarding the video.
"This tweet was done by me addressing question mark to the prime minister. And since I had a doubt about the bonafide of this tweet, I forwarded it by way of a question. And it turned out to be incorrect and outcome of a cooked-up WhatsApp message based on pernicious misconduct," he said.
"However, since I have forwarded it, and in the process I have hurt the sentiment or the reputation of a school or a teacher, being an elected representative and a responsible citizen, I express deep regret and tender my apology," he said.
"However, I do not accept I have committed any offence, much less the question of facing prosecution or persecution on part of the state," he said.
Principal Bijal Patel had filed the FIR against him in which she said that the accused wrongly used the name of the school which caused a feeling of hatred towards it and its teachers.