Madhya Pradesh HC rejects pre-arrest bail plea of person who compared RSS to Taliban

The Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected the anticipatory bail petition of a man who allegedly compared RSS to the Taliban and instigated the religious sentiments of people. An FIR was filed against him at the Kotwali Police Station in Tikramgarh under Sections 153, 295, 505(1) and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code. The petitioner's advocate contended that his client was falsely implicated in this case due to political rivalry and had not made comments on any religion or organization.

Highlighting that the investigation into the case has been completed, he argued in favour of pre-arrest bail citing that the trial will take a long time to complete. On the other hand, the prosecution affirmed that the comments made by the accused had gone viral on social media thereby creating a nuisance. In his order dated October 25, Justice Rajendra Kumar affirmed, "Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case and on perusal of the material available on record including case diary and the role attributed in the commission of offences by the applicant, there is sufficient evidence available against the applicant, in the opinion of this Court, this Court is not inclined to grant the benefit of anticipatory bail to the applicant". 

Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan

After the Taliban stormed into Kabul on August 15, Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani resigned and fled the country with his associates. On August 31, the terror outfit gained control of the Kabul airport after the last batch of US troops left Afghanistan. Though the Taliban promised to form an "inclusive" government to run Afghanistan, it announced a caretaker Cabinet that neither has women nor mainstream politicians from previous regimes.

While Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the chief of the Taliban's Rehbari Shura, is the new Prime Minister, he has two deputies in Mullah Baradar and Mawlawi Hanafi. So far, the terror outfit's rule has been marked by repression of women's rights, restrictions on media, economic crisis and atrocities on Panjshir residents. In a key development on October 21, 10 countries- India, Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan participated in the third Moscow Format meeting with a Taliban delegation led by Afghanistan Deputy PM Mawlawi Hanafi. 

They stressed that Afghanistan should be an economically developing state without the menace of terrorism and drug-related crime. The nations also called upon the Taliban regime to adopt moderate policies and a friendly approach towards its neighbours besides respecting the rights of ethnic groups, women and children. Most importantly, they urged the current Afghan leadership to take further steps to improve governance and to form a "truly inclusive government" that adequately reflects the interests of all major ethnopolitical forces in the country.