The high court provided temporary protection against arrest to Ranveer Allahbadia for remarks on a YouTube program and directed him to deposit his passport. The Supreme Court on Monday noticed the investigation into the matter regarding podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia was over and stated it would on April 28 hear his application for the restoration of his passport in a case of offensive remarks in a YouTube program.
On February 18, the Supreme Court shielded Allahbadia against arrest in various FIRs for his remarks on a YouTube program and instructed him to surrender his passport to the investigating officer of Police Station Nodal Cyber Police, Thane. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh indicated that it would hear Allahbadia’s application on April 28.
At the hearing, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared on behalf of Assam and Maharashtra police, informed in the Guwahati FIR that the statement of one co-accused would be taken while investigation was over in connection with the FIR in Mumbai but a chargesheet had not been filed yet.
The bench noted Mehta’s statement and noted that investigation qua Allahbadia was over. The supreme court on March 3 granted permission to Allahbadia to continue podcasting “The Ranveer Show” provided he retained “morality and decency” and made it family-friendly.
Allahbadia, who is colloquially referred to as BeerBiceps, was arrested for his remarks about sex and parents on cartoonist Samay Raina’s YouTube show “India’s Got Latent”. The supreme court had originally restrained Allahbadia from broadcasting any programme of his podcast that directly or indirectly had an impact on the merits of the sub-judice cases he was associated with.
On February 18, the Supreme Court extended interim protection against arrest to Allahbadia while terming his remarks as “vulgar” and stating that he had a “dirty mind” that brought society to shame. Besides Allahbadia and Raina, others who are listed in the case in Assam include comedians Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija.
