GUNTUR: The Guntur district court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to Pastor Praveen Chakravarty who hails from Kakinada in East Godavari district. It may be recollected that the Mangalagiri Cyber Crime CID police recently registered a case and arrested him for an alleged video of Praveen Chakravarty giving a hate speech while provoking religious hatred which went viral on social media.

Additional Judge Vasanthi of the Guntur district court, who heard the case on Wednesday, granted conditional bail to Praveen. However, she made it clear that he should not leave the country. The court directed him to co-operate in the investigation of the case by appearing at the CID police station every Sunday.

Over the past few weeks there have been widespread attacks on Hindu temples in the State. In the wave of these attacks, a video of the Pastor Praveen from Kakinada went viral where he was seen saying that the idols of the gods were fake and that he would attack them, went viral on social media. This led to a large-scale demand for action against the Pastor. One person named Venkata Sri Lakshmi Narayana of Guntur lodged a complaint on January 12 in the CID PS at Mangalagiri against Praveen.

The report was stated to be a cognizable offence and the same was registered as Case in Cr.No.1 of 2021 of Cyber Crime Police Station, CID U/s 153 A,153B(1) (c), 505(1)(c), 505(2), 295(A), 124(A), 115 IPC r/w 66 (F) of Information Technology Act. The Cyber Crime Police team verified the facts and arrested the pastor a day later.

The pastor was produced before court, and was sent to jail on January 13. He was sent to police custody on January 18, by the court after the police filed a petition. Subsequently raids were conducted at his home, an orphanage that he runs and an office at Kakinada. Praveen who was arrested by the police at this juncture was granted bail on Wednesday after his custody ended.