The 23-year-old Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduate from Hyderabad who was arrested by the Mumbai police earlier this month for issuing an online rape threat to cricketer Virat Kohli's baby daughter, was granted bail by a court in Mumbai on Saturday, 20 November.
Ramnagesh Akubathini, who had graduated from IIT Hyderabad around two years ago, and had worked with a top food delivery app firm headquartered in Bengaluru, sent out the rape threat following India's loss against Pakistan in the recent T20 World Cup.
Akubathini's bail plea was heard by the Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Bandra. He was first sent to police custody and later to judicial custody. Bar and Bench reported that he was granted bail on Saturday, on a bail bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties and an undertaking that he would not abscond or evade trial.
Akubathini also has to submit his residential details to the authorities and report to the jurisdictional police station twice a week for one month, according to his bail conditions. Ramnagesh Akubathini, a software engineer and a resident of Sangareddy in Telangana, was arrested by a special team of the Mumbai Police on Wednesday, 10 November.
The threats targeted the 10-month-old daughter of Virat Kohli and actor Anushka Sharma, who have a house in Mumbai, police said. The threat was issued on 24 October and the cyber police registered a case on Kohli's behalf on 8 November based on a complaint by the cricketer's manager.
Team India's star paceman Mohammed Shami was subjected to online abuse after India's loss against Pakistan. After skipper Kohli extended his support to Shami and called out religious discrimination, the now-deleted Twitter account @Criccrazyygirl, which the police later found was run by Akubathini, had issued rape threats to Kohli's daughter.
The FIR was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 354-A (sexual harassment), 506 (Criminal intimidation) and 500 (Defamation), read with relevant sections of Information of Technology (IT) Act, the police said.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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