Gauhati HC quashes case against YouTuber over slur on Assamese women

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has quashed a criminal case and charge sheet filed against YouTuber Abhishek Kar over his controversial remarks about Assamese women, ruling that the statements did not attract the penal provisions invoked by the police.

Delivering the judgment on February 9, 2026, Justice Pranjal Das allowed a criminal petition filed by Kar under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) seeking quashing of CID Cyber Police Station Case No. 01 of 2025.

The case had been registered on the basis of an FIR lodged on January 11, 2025, by Inspector Rakesh Kalita at the CID Cyber Police Station. The FIR alleged that Kar, during a discussion on the YouTube channel of Ms Riya Upreti, made derogatory comments against Assamese women. He had claimed that in a place in Assam, girls practised black magic and could convert human beings into goats and other animals and later turn them back into humans at night to establish physical relations.

Following investigation, the police submitted the charge sheet on September 8, 2025, under Sections 196(1), 197(1) and 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) read with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act and Section 4 of the Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015.

“Section 67 of the I.T. Act criminalizes the Act of publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form. In my considered opinion, the statement of the petitioner taken on its face value cannot also be said to be attracting the ingredients of Section-67 of the I.T. Act. In the statement, the petitioner has made some controversial remarks, but the same does not necessarily amount to obscenity,” the court added.

Justice Das observed that for an offence under Section 196 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), there must be promotion of enmity between different groups on specified grounds, and that at least two groups or communities must be involved.

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