Richa Bharti, a 19 year old, was granted bail on the 16th of July, on one condition.  The District Court directed Bharti to donate 5 copies of the Quran—one to an Islamic organisation and four to different libraries in the City.

Richa Bharti, a residence of Jharkhand, posted a controversial communal post regarding the death of Tabrez, a residence of Jharkhand, who was killed by a mob for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram.’

According to sources, an Islamic organisation, Anjuman Islamia, filed a complaint against Richa for her Facebook posts, stating the post disturbs communal harmony.

The Jharkhand Police arrested Richa from her residence on the 12th of July and kept her under custody.

On the 16th of July, she appeared in front of the District Court of Judicial Magistrate Manish Kumar Singh, who granted her bail on the unusual condition that she distributes the Quran. He directed her to distribute the Quran within 15 days of her release and submit the receipts in Court.

Out of the 5 copies, Manish Kumar Singh asked her to donate one to Anjuman Islamia and take a receipt from them in the Court.

A lawyer of the District Court said, “She has been granted conditional bail. The condition is that she will go and give a copy of the Quran to the local Anjuman Islamiya (the organisation), and she will take the receipt. The rest of the copies of the Quran will be distributed to four libraries. She will have to submit all five receipts within 15 days.”

However, Richa Bharti refused to follow the verdict of the Court and said, “To write about our own gods is not wrong. It’s not like that I had intentionally hurt their religious sentiments. I had not written that post; I had only copied and pasted the text (sic.)”

She further added, “Such posts also come from the other side, but they are not told to recite Hanuman Chalisa and go to temples.”

Richa Bharti said, her family and she plan to appeal against the verdict in the High Court.
Pratul Shahdev, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, said, “This is a strange judgment. I have not read the judgment yet. But as it is being reported in (the) media, I have not heard anything of this kind in the history of India.”

The judgement of the District Court created chaos on social media platforms. People took to Twitter and criticised the judgement and supported Richa Bharti for refusing to follow the orders of the Court.

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