Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 13: A local Court in North Kashmir’s Baramulla today rejected the bail application of Shahid Imran-who has been posing as a journalist and minted money-over lack of jurisdiction.
His counsel said that his client has not indulged in any case whatsoever but merely on some enmity has been put behind the bars.
Javid Manzoor Sheikh on behalf of the prosecution said that the nature of the case was glaring and the facts “send a chill down the spine as to how the fourth state has not only breached the trust of one particular individual but the entire public.”
He said the facts of the case point out the very heinousness of the crime as to how one lady complainant reposed her entire trust in a particular individual with the object of only saving her brother from the menace of drugs and how that the individual broke the trust and abused his position and used the helplessness of the victim to his advantage.
“The extortion, cheating, forgery, intimidation and criminal conspiracy are not minor offences especially by the person who has gained public faith and if such person is enlarged on bail it will send a negative message in the society and public who are watching keenly the outcome from the court,” Sheikh said.
He said that is involved in very heinous offences which, he said, endangers not only the individual but the whole society.
“No doubt, freedom of the Press is a constitutional guarantee placed within the Part III of the Constitution about the fundamental rights. However, freedom of the Press will not arm and authorize the media person to misuse and exploit the illiterate and rustic people of the country,” Judicial Magistrate Baramulla, Mansoor Ahmad Lone said in the order,
The court said that while weighing the allegations levelled against the accused which are so heinous and serious that if the discretion is exercised in his favour “surely there will be a cry in the society besides the other similarly situated persons will get enhance at the hands of unscrupulous and dishonest pressman/ media persons.”
Further, the Court said that the application in hand has been transferred to this court wrongly and against the provisions of Section 410 of Cr. P.C which warrant that the case can be transferred to a magistrate competent to enquire and try the same.
From the totality of the circumstances, the Court said that the bail application was bereft of any reason and the same is rejected