Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday, January 22, sought a response from the Mumbai Police on a plea filed by British doctor and YouTuber Sangram Patil to quash a First Information Report (FIR) over “objectionable” social media posts targeting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
Patil, who is currently barred from leaving India due to a Look Out Circular (LOC), maintains that he has been cooperating with investigators, a claim disputed in the high court by Advocate General Milind Sathe.
A single bench of Justice Ashwin Bhobe took up Patil’s plea, which also sought quashing of the LOC, and directed the police to file an affidavit in response to the petition.
The matter was posted for hearing on February 4.
Patil, a British citizen of Indian origin hailing from Jalgaon district in north Maharashtra, was stopped at the Mumbai international airport on January 10 upon his arrival and questioned for 15 hours.
His counsel, Sudeep Pasbola, on Thursday told the court that the doctor was unaware that an FIR existed and had traveled to India of his own.
Stopped from boarding third time due to LOC
Despite his intent to return to Manchester on January 16, Patil was detained again and stopped from boarding his flight due to the active LOC.
He has since been stopped a third time on January 19.
The petitioner has been cooperating with the investigation and has already appeared before the Crime Branch for questioning three times, Pasbola told the court.
Advocate General Milind Sathe, however, told the court that Patil was not cooperating with the police.
Apart from the quashing of the FIR and LOC, Patil has also sought the court to stay investigation in the case and also direct the police to not take any coercive action against him.
He also sought the court’s permission to travel to the UK.
The FIR against Patil was registered in December last year based on a complaint by Nikhil Bhamre, social media coordinator of the Maharashtra BJP.
Bhamre told the police that he came across Patil’s objectionable post while browsing online, raised the matter with party leaders, and then approached the police.
