Cyber harassment case: TVM court grants bail to Rahul Easwar

The District Sessions Court in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday granted bail to activist and orator Rahul Easwar in a cyber harassment case. He was subsequently released from the district jail by evening, where members of the Men’s Association welcomed him.

The Thiruvananthapuram cyber police booked Easwar on November 30 for allegedly disclosing the identity of a woman who accused Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkoottathil of rape and impregnation. The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court had earlier denied him bail after the police argued that he made sexually coloured remarks about the survivor. Following this, he was remanded to judicial custody, during which he also staged a 48-hour hunger strike in jail.

Listed as the fifth accused in the case, Easwar has been charged under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Section 72 (revealing the identity of victims of specified serious offences such as sexual crimes), Section 75(1)(iv) (making sexually coloured remarks), Section 79 (insulting the modesty of a woman), and Sections 351(1) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation). He has also been booked under Section 43, read with Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, which deals with unauthorised access to or damage of computer systems and other computer-related offences.

He was arrested based on the survivor’s complaint, and his electronic devices, including his mobile phone and laptop, were examined as part of the investigation. Easwar has publicly backed Mamkoottathil and maintained that the MLA is innocent since the allegations came to light.

Apart from Easwar, Congress leader Sandeep G Varier, Mahila Congress leader Renjitha Pulickan, Advocate Deepa Joseph, and the person who handled Deepa’s social media profile have also been booked in the case.