The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of YouTuber and folk singer Neha Singh Rathore in connection with a case related to making baseless, anti-religious and anti-national comments on social media.
The case alleged that she made baseless, anti-religious and anti-national remarks on social media targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 tourists were killed on April 22, 2025.
Delivering the order, Justice Brij Raj Singh observed that Rathore had failed to cooperate with the investigation, despite earlier directions from the court, which had already dismissed her writ petition seeking quashing of the FIR.
The court also noted that the Supreme Court, while refusing to quash the FIR on October 13, had only permitted her to seek discharge at the appropriate stage and had not granted any interim protection.
The FIR was lodged on April 27, 2025, at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Sections 152, 196, 197, 353 and 302, along with Section 69(a) of the IT Act.
According to the complaint, Rathore’s tweets posted shortly after the killing tourists in Pahalgam were intended to incite disharmony, promote enmity and undermine national integrity.
The tweets—several URLs of which were annexed to the FIR—questioned the conduct of political rallies following the attack and suggested that the government was steering the country toward war. The prosecution stated that the posts were widely circulated online and amplified by accounts in Pakistan.
Opposing the bail plea, government advocate Dr VK Singh argued that Rathore’s remarks went beyond constitutionally protected speech under Article 19(1)(a) and amounted to derogatory, destabilising statements made at a time of heightened tensions with Pakistan.
He also submitted that Rathore had ignored notices, changed residences frequently and avoided interrogation, thereby obstructing the investigation.
Rathore’s counsel contended that none of the offences invoked in the FIR were attracted, asserting that her statements amounted to legitimate criticism of the government.
They argued that Section 152 BNS, which replaces the sedition provision, requires deliberate intent to incite secession or rebellion—an element absent in her tweets—and that provisions such as Section 159 BNS (abetment of mutiny) were wholly irrelevant.
Reliance was placed on Supreme Court and High Court precedents affirming that criticism of the government cannot be equated with anti-national activity.
The State, however, maintained that the Supreme Court’s earlier refusal to interfere with the FIR placed a binding limitation on the High Court’s jurisdiction in an anticipatory bail proceeding.
Recording that more than seven months had passed since the FIR without Rathore joining the investigation, the court remarked that her tweets, posted at a sensitive time, contained references to the Prime Minister in a manner it described as disrespectful.
It held that while the right to free speech is protected, it is subject to reasonable restrictions, and the nature and timing of the posts required examination at trial rather than in a pre-arrest bail hearing.
Rejecting the plea, the court said Rathore was free to pursue any other remedy available in law.
Senior Advocate Purnendu Chakravarty, assisted by advocates Shivanshu Goswami, Kaustubh Singh and Arpit Verma, appeared for Neha Singh Rathore. The State was represented by Dr VK Singh, Government Advocate, assisted by Rajdeep Singh, AGA-I.
Born in 1997 in Bihar’s Kaimur district, Neha Singh Rathore claims on her social media profiles that she is “fighting to restore the honour” of Bhojpuri music through her folk songs. Neha Singh Rathore grew up in Bihar’s Jandaha and completed her Bachelor of Science degree from Kanpur University in 2018.
She launched her YouTube channel in May 2020 to highlight the plight of migrant workers during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Neha Singh Rathore rose to fame in 2022 with her song ‘UP Mein Ka Ba’, which followed the success of ‘Bihar Mein Ka Ba’ in 2020.
She has been married to writer Himanshu Singh since 2021.
Through her folk music, Rathore focuses on social issues like unemployment, corruption, dowry, and politics, aiming to preserve Bhojpuri tradition against the rise of ‘sleazy’ film songs.
