Supreme Court dismisses YouTuber Manish Kashyap's plea to club FIRs in fake videos case

In a major setback to jailed Bihar YouTuber Manish Kashyap, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed his plea challenging invocation of the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against him for allegedly spreading fake videos of migrant labourers being attacked in Tamil Nadu.

“You have a stable state, the state of Tamil Nadu. Can you circulate anything and create disquiet in the state. We cannot be lending our ears to all this,“ a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said.

A bench of justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, however, gave Kashyap the liberty to challenge the invocation of the NSA at a relevant judicial forum preferably in the high court.

It also denied his request to consolidate all 19 FIRs against him and transfer them to Bihar.

“We are not inclined to entertain the plea,” the bench said while rejecting the vehement submissions of senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Kashyap who is presently lodged in Madurai jail of Tamil Nadu.

Refusing to quash Kashyap’s detention under the NSA, the bench said it cannot be hearing this kind of petition.

The counsel for Kashyap argued that the accused had made the videos for his YouTube channel taking reference from media reports published in a few newspapers.

“If this boy has to be in jail, all journalists have to be in jail then,” the lawyer further added that the FIRs should be clubbed and transferred to Bihar where the first complaint was lodged by the police.

The lawyer, representing Bihar in court, mentioned several nitty gritties of the FIRs lodged against Kashyap in the state and opposed the plea.

While mentioning Kashyap as an habitual offender, he said that he has cases for extortion and attempt to murder pending against him.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Amit Anand Tiwari, representing Tamil Nadu, said the accused has the opportunity to move to the Madras High Court for clubbing of the FIRs.

“He is not a journalist and was a politician who has contested the elections in Bihar,” Sibal said. The top court did not agree to the submissions of Kashyap’s lawyer that the invocation of NSA has been quashed in several cases.

Manish Kashyap had moved the Supreme Court after he was slapped with charges under the National Security Act over the alleged spreading of fake videos showing attacks on Bihari migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.

Kashyap was arrested in Bihar after he surrendered at the Jagdishpur police station on March 18 and was later brought to Tamil Nadu where NSA was invoked against him in April.

In its reply to the plea of Kashyap, the Tamil Nadu government had said multiple FIRs that have been registered in the state against Kashyap are not politically motivated but because he disturbed “public order and national integrity” by circulating fake videos of migrant labourers being attacked in the southern state.

In an affidavit, the state government had opposed Kashyap’s plea to club the FIRs lodged against him, saying he cannot “seek the shelter of the umbrella of constitutional rights” The state government had claimed Kashyap attempted to instigate violence between Bihari migrant labourers and the people of Tamil Nadu through false and unverified videos.

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