SC confirms protection from arrest to cartoonist booked for ‘undignified’ Modi caricature

The Supreme Court on Tuesday made absolute an order for interim protection from arrest to Indore-based cartoonist Hemant Malviya, who has been booked for allegedly depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in an allegedly dignified manner, The Hindu reported.

On July 15, the court had granted him interim protection from coercive action. The order was made final on Tuesday, after which the Supreme Court disposed of Malviya’s petition for anticipatory bail.

A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria recorded that Malviya had complied with its earlier direction to issue apologies on his social media handles, The Hindu reported.

The court, however, allowed the Madhya Pradesh police to move for cancellation of relief if Malviya failed to cooperate with the investigation.

On August 23, the cartoonist had published an apology on Facebook in line with the court’s order.

On July 14, the cartoonist had agreed to delete the post after being criticised by the Supreme Court.

Malviya had moved the top court challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court order that denied him anticipatory bail in the case.

The case

Malviya had published the original cartoon on January 6, 2021, which depicted Modi as a doctor administering an injection to a man dressed in what may have appeared to some as the uniform of the RSS.

The RSS is the parent organisation of the Bharatiya...

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