Hate speech case: Akbaruddin Owaisi released from jail

After spending 38 days in a local prison, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi, who is facing charges of sedition and waging war against the nation for his "hate speech", was released on bail on Saturday.

Owaisi had been granted bail by two separate courts in Nirmal and Nizamabad on Friday, where cases had been registered against him.

Hundreds of party workers on Saturday gathered outside the prison and raised slogans in favour of the MIM leader, who left for Hyderabad immediately after the release. The state police had made elaborate security arrangements along the highway.

Though the courts had granted bail to him on Friday, he was not released, as some of the formalities were not completed, a prison official said.

The court of the first additional sessions judge in Adilabad granted conditional bail to Owaisi and directed that he should not enter Nirmal town, participate in public meetings or incite communal feelings.

Similarly, the first additional district magistrate court in Nizamabad town allowed Owaisi's bail plea on the condition that he should cooperate with the investigation officer.

While the Nirmal court asked him to surrender his passport until further orders and submit two sureties of Rs 25,000 each, the Nizamabad court asked him to produce two sureties of Rs 10,000 each for the bail.

The police had booked suo motu cases in Nirmal in Adilabad and Nizamabad districts against the legislator after he allegedly used inflammatory and derogatory language against a community during his public speeches in December last year. He also faces charges of sedition and waging war against the nation among others, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Owaisi was arrested by the Nirmal police from Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad on January 8 and was lodged in Adilabad District Jail since January 9.