Clubhouse App Case: 19-Year-old Accused Akash Suyal Granted Bail by Mumbai Court

Suyal urged the court to treat his case on parity with the co-accused Parashar, who was granted bail by in February.

All three accused, hailing from Haryana, were arrested on 20 January.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A Mumbai court on Thursday, 31 March, granted bail to 19-year-old Akash Suyal, one of the three accused in the Clubhouse app case in which a group of men were heard defaming and making misogynist comments against Muslim women on the platform.

All the three accused, hailing from Haryana, were arrested by the Mumbai police on 20 January.

Suyal had approached the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court with a bail application filed under Section 437 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He urged the court to treat his case on parity with the co-accused Parashar, who was granted bail by the same court in February.

He pleaded the court to consider their ‘tender age’ and said that any further custody will destroy his future.

The Clubhouse Case

Suyal, along with Jaishnav Kakkad and Yash Parashar from Faridabad, were arrested by the Mumbai police in January on the basis of a complaint filed by two women who claimed that their photographs were circulated and discussed by multiple people in the Clubhouse app chatroom.

All the three accused are between 19 and 22 years of age and hail from Haryana.

A case has been registered under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (malicious acts outraging religious feelings), 354D (stalking), 509 (insulting modesty of woman), and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 67 (publishing/transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

(With inputs from Bar and Bench.)