Court grants bail to filmmaker Barun Kashyap in cowhide bag case

Filmmaker Barun Kashyap, who was booked by the Amboli police in the cowhide bag case, received bail from the Andheri metropolitan magistrate’s court on Monday. Earlier, on Saturday, after listening to the arguments from the defence lawyer and public prosecutor, the court had reserved its order for Monday. Meanwhile, Amboli police station’s senior police inspector, Bharat Gaikwad, denied having any information about Kashyap being granted bail. The filmmaker will remain behind bars for two more days, since his supporters couldn’t furnish the documents required for his bail.

Kashyap was granted the bail on a bond of Rs 15,000, which his supporters from the Aam Aadmi Party submitted to the court. The police have booked Kashyap under Indian Penal Code section 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion) and 182 (false information).

The defence lawyer for Kashyap, Vijay Hiremath, informed the court that his client was framed in the case and had never committed any crime. The defence lawyer claimed in the bail application that no incident born out of hatred had taken place due to Kahsyap’s case. If the police’s allegations that Kashyap wanted to spread hatred were true, then there should have been at least a single incident of a fight between two groups, but no such incident had taken place at all, the defence argued.

Mr Hiremath further argued that on September 30, the police had called Kashyap to narrate the sequence of events on August 19 — the date on which the entire incident took place — and it was then that the police had forced him to change his statement.

The defence also told the court that since the investigation into the case is on since August, Kashyap’s bail should not get rejected on the ground that the police still needs more time for investigation.

The public prosecutor, Sudhir Sakpale, however, told the court that Kashyap had filed a false complaint, claiming that he had been harassed and threatened by vigilantes for carrying a bag made of cowhide in August.

After investigations, the Amboli police discovered that no such incident had actually taken place, Mr Sakpale said.