The petitioner is accused of committing the offence punishable under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code. He seeks the protection of pre-arrest bail envisaged under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Code').

2. The prosecution case can be briefly stated as follows:

'Marunadan Malayali' is an online news page. On 12.06.2018, a news item was published in it regarding a prospective war between the members of the Islam and Christian religions. The petitioner posted a comment on this news item in the Facebook page stating that Muslim is a virus which would destroy the world. He also insulted the members of that religion describing them as dogs. In another comment made by him he insulted and abused Prophet Muhammad, thereby hurting the religious sentiments of the members of Islam religion.

3. On the basis of a complaint made by a person at the police station, Crime No.111/2018 of the Melattoor Police Station was registered against the petitioner under Section 153A I.P.C.

4. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and also the learned Public Prosecutor and perused the case diary.

5. In the application for bail, the petitioner has