Kerala: A Supreme Court bench on Friday dismissed Kerala’ controversial activist Rehana Fathima’s plea seeking anticipatory bail in the case related to a controversial video with her children and asked the activist why she should be doing such an act.
“Why do you do all this? You might be an activist but why do this? What kind of nonsense is this? How can you make use of children for this? What kind of a culture will the children perceive?” Justice Arun Mishra, who was heading the bench said.
Rehana stoked a controversy after she uploaded a video of her children painting her semi-naked body. Subsequently, she was booked under the sections of the POCSO Act.
Rehana’s counsel had moved the Apex Court after the Kerala High Court refused her a pre-arrest bail.
On Friday, her advocate Gopal Sankaranarayan told the court that Section 13 of the POCSO Act does not apply to the case as the children were fully clothed in the video.
However, the bench rejected the plea, stating that prima facie, POCSO charges apply to the accused activist in the case.
The activist had earlier argued that her intention was to normalise the female body and to not allow distorted ideas of sexualisation ocur in the minds of the children. She had also said that only a pervert can sexualise her act of allowing her children to paint on her body.
Earlier the Kerala High Court had rejected her anticipatory bail plea, with the judge stating that ‘he is not in a position to say that no offence under POCSO Act and other sections is attracted in this case’.
