Ratlam: MP Advocate Arrested for Sending Birthday Wishes to Judge
Advocate Vijay Singh Yadav has been behind bars for the last 21 days.
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On 9 February 2021, birthday greetings to the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) of Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam district, via email and speed post, landed a 37-year-old advocate in jail.
For the last 21 days, advocate Vijay Singh Yadav has been behind bars, owing to charges of cheating, forgery, forgery for purpose of harming reputation, and section 67 & 41 of IT Act (downloading image without permission from Facebook).
Four days after the arrest, on 13 February, a lower court rejected Yadav's bail plea, following which his family approached the Indore Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court.
In his bail plea on 13 February, Yadav claimed that he had sent the birthday greeting to her official email ID, as a social worker and president of Jai Kul Devi Sewa Samiti Ratlam, a social ground, and not as an individual.
According to police, the FIR against Yadav was registered after Mahendra Singh Chouhan, a System Officer of Ratlam District Court complained against the advocate.
As per his complaint, advocate Yadav sent birthday greetings to JMFC Mitali Pathak on her official email ID on 28 January at 1.11 am. In addition to that, he also sent a birthday greeting card through speed post, during the court hours the following day.
Police reported that Yadav had downloaded a profile picture of the Judicial Magistrate First Class from her Facebook account, without her consent, and sent it back with a greeting card that had an indecent message on it.
Ten days after the birthday greetings were sent, the police registered an FIR and arrested Yadav from his home.
According to Vijay's brother, Jay, two policemen came home looking for Vijay and asked him to come to the police station to meet the inspector in-charge. "They insisted that he come with them and then they arrested him," said 36-year old Jay.
Jay further alleged that police framed Vijay in a fabricated case, as he had filed a 'private complaint' against judge Mitali Pathak, to Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Ratlam, for giving a long rope to the police and passing an order against Yadav's client over a case of illegal detention by police.
"A day after the birthday greeting, on 30 January, Yadav had complained against Mithali to the CJM, Ratlam, but, no action has been taken against her. Instead police booked my brother nine days after the complaint for sending birthday greetings," said Jay Yadav.
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