Guwahati, May 10: Police summoned budding Assamese singer Bhrigu Kashyap here today for questioning following an FIR lodged by popular singer Priyanka Bharali. She alleged that Kashyap had uploaded their “intimate pictures” on social media recently.
Fearing arrest, Kashyap moved a court here today and was granted interim bail.
The court asked Kashyap to appear before the investigating officer within 10 days and co-operate in the investigation. Kashyap, who has performed with Bharali in the past, denied the allegation while talking to local TV channels this morning. However, he did not respond to calls in the evening.
Bharali had said one of the pictures circulated on WhatsApp was a selfie clicked by Kashyap on his mobile phone and so she suspected that he had circulated them.
In her FIR lodged at Dispur police station on Saturday, Bharali had alleged that four such pictures (three morphed) were shared on WhatsApp and later uploaded on Facebook. The police registered a case under the Information Technology Act, 2000, that prohibits circulation of such pictures on digital platform.
“On April 26, while I was going to perform at a function, I got calls from my friends saying that two photographs (one morphed) featuring me had been circulated on WhatsApp,” Bharali said. “I could not return to Guwahati earlier because of cultural programmes (Bihu functions). The next day, a few persons started uploading the photographs on Facebook. He (Kashyap) also uploaded two more morphed pictures on Facebook. So, I filed an FIR for action,” Bharali had told The Telegraph on Saturday.
She said she had known Kashyap for four years. “We have performed together. I have also helped him and my family members know him,” she said. Kashyap said he was unaware from whose mobile phone the pictures were circulated. “Let the forensic experts clear the doubt and the law take its own course,” he said, adding: “I don’t know who had uploaded and shared the pictures on Facebook.”
According to lawyer Neelotpal Deka, who specialises in cyber laws, Kashyap should have been immediately taken into custody and his device — be it a mobile phone, laptop or any other such instrument — from which the photo may have been uploaded seized.
“Also the police should have by now got in touch with the Internet service provider and got the Internet protocol (IP) address of the device from which the photos were uploaded.” He also said the alleged crime is bailable under Section 78 of the IT act. Asked if by now the evidence could have been destroyed, Deka said, “There is no way the police can’t get hold of the IP address. Deleting the photographs from the device’s cache would make it a little difficult for the investigators but there is no way this would prevent investigation from proceeding.”
Kashyap’s lawyer Bijon Mahajan said additional sessions judge Kamrup (metro) granted interim bail to his client and asked the police to submit the case diary on or before May 30. A police officer in Dispur said they were taking necessary steps to look into the allegation.