Kochi: The high court has temporarily banned activist Rehana Fathima from expressing her opinion through visual and electronic media. The ban will be in force until the trial of the case for putting up a Facebook post that hurt the religious sentiments of the Ayyappa devotees in 2018, is completed. The court had granted bail for Rehana in the case charged in 2018.
However, a petition was filed this year pointing out that she violated the bail conditions and hurt the sentiments of devotees through a cookery show and demanded to cancel her bail. Justice Sunil Thomas issued the ban order on the basis of this petition.
Though there are reasons to cancel the bail, the court settled the case by banning her from expressing opinion through media as a last chance. The court observed that Rehana has not changed at all even after she was recently arrested in a POCSO case and lost her job.
Rehana was also directed to appear before the investigating officer in Pathanamthitta every Monday and Saturday between 9 and 10 in the morning for three months. When she is in Ernakulam, she can also sign there. If she fails to follow the conditions, the bail will be cancelled, the court stated in the order. Rehana was terminated from her job in BSNL.
