The Court made the observation while quashing charges of identity theft and obscenity against a man accused of defaming his brother-in-law through posts allegedly made from a fake Facebook account created by him.
The Bombay High Court’s Aurangabad Bench recently ruled that printed screenshots of defamatory Facebook posts will not be sufficient to prove that they were created by a fake Facebook account [Mahesh Shivling Tilkari v State of Maharashtra].
The Court made the observation while quashing charges of identity theft and obscenity against a man accused of defaming his brother-in-law through posts allegedly made from a fake Facebook account created by him.
After going through the material submitted as evidence, a Bench comprising Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice SG Chapalgaonkar stated,
“Print of screenshots of Facebook material will not at any stretch of imagination prove that the said post was created from an alleged fake account.”
Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice SG Chapalgaonkar
The case began when the man’s brother-in-law filed a complaint with the Latur police station claiming that the man had created two fake Facebook accounts—one under the name “Minal Basavraj Swami” and another under “Chandra Surnal”— to post defamatory material about him and his family.
He alleged that the posts harmed his reputation and that of his family, particularly the man’s wife.
The complaint cited a marital dispute between the man and his wife as the possible motive behind the defamation.
However, the Court in its ruling observed that the investigation lacked sufficient evidence to link the accused to the creation of the fake accounts.
“Only the screenshots of Facebook, of which prints have been taken, are annexed after seizure and there are statements of two witnesses. Only on the basis of said material it cannot be said that the said Facebook posts were created by the man. Therefore, there is absolutely no evidence against him, and it would be a futile exercise to ask him to face the trial,” the bench stated.