HC grants interim protection to 3 accused of assaulting Youtuber over derogatory remarks

The Kerala High Court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest till October 30 to dubbing artist Bhagyalakshmi and two others for allegedly assaulting a YouTuber named Vijay P Nair over the latter's "derogatory" remarks against women.

A single-judge bench of Justice Ashok Menon, while hearing the anticipatory bail applications of the accused, observed that it is not proper to take the law into your hands even if the other person has said the nastiest of things.

"If you are bold enough to go and beat up a man, why are you afraid of facing the consequences? Why are you shy about appearing before the police or going to jail? Probably they did not have faith in the police and decided to do it themselves. That also needs to be taken into consideration," the bench observed.

"Custodial interrogation may not be necessary. Nothing is to be recovered from the accused. And there is doubt about the application of Section 452 (of the Indian Penal Code). But vigilantism cannot be encouraged," it added.

Section 452 of the IPC pertains to house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint.

Earlier, a district court in Thiruvananthapuram had rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by Bhagyalakshmi and two others in a case of assaulting the YouTuber.

The incident pertains to one Vijay P Nair, who shared abusive remarks about women on his YouTube Channel. A group of women including Bhagyalakshmi allegedly beat him up and threw black ink at him. Police registered cases against both parties acting on separate complaints.

Vijay was arrested by police and the women are yet to be arrested though a case was registered against them by the police. In a separate complaint, the police are also conducting a probing against Sreelakshmi Arakkal, who allegedly shared and promoted vulgar contents through her YouTube videos.

The video of the women assaulting the blogger has been shared widely on social media after the women in the group shared the incident live on Facebook. The women have been booked for manhandling and robbery which can lead to imprisonment of up to five years. The women had allegedly also forcibly taken his laptop after assaulting him.

( With inputs from ANI )