MARGAO
The South Goa District and Sessions Court on Monday granted conditional anticipatory bail for Konkani writer and thinker Datta Damodar Naik in the FIR registered by the Canacona Police against him for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
Datta’s lawyer, Adv Cleofato Coutinho, informed that the Court had directed the Canacona police to release Datta on a bail of Rs 25,000 in the event of his arrest.
He further stated that the Court had told Datta not to leave Goa without the permission of the Court and to make himself available for investigations by the Canacona police.
The city businessman had approached the South Goa Sessions Court last week after the Canacona police registered an FIR against him for hurting religious sentiments due to his remarks about Temples and Mutts.
In his anticipatory bail application, Datta had categorically stated that he had no intention to hurt the religious sentiments of anyone, even pointing out that he had expressed his regrets at a programme organised to felicitate him on his 70th birthday if anyone was hurt by his statements.
The Canacona Police, however, had made a strong case for Datta’s custodial interrogation in the investigation of the crime.
