The court upheld that prima facie evidence exists to support the alleged offenses in the context of the Kerala Police Act.

O R D E R Dated this the 20^th day of February, 2026 The accused in CC. No.2330/2025 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-II, Hosdurg, arising out of Crime No.120/2025 of Melparamba Police Station, filed this Criminal Revision Petition under Section 438 and 442 of the BNS S, praying for setting aside the order of the learned Magistrate, dismissing his application for discharge. The offences alleged against the revision petition are under Sections 79 and 241 of and Section 120 (o) of the Kerala Police Act .

2. The prosecution case is that on 1.11.2024, at about 1:02 a.m., the accused edited the photograph of the defacto complainant and another person, with the intention to insult the modesty of the defacto complainant and to harass her, sent the same to CW2 through his WhatsApp account and then destroyed his mobile phone and thereby he is alleged to have committed the aforesaid offences.

3. According to the learned counsel for the revision petitioner, the revision petitioner has not made any comments and only sent the photograph with a bonafide intention and as such, no offence as alleged against him, is made out. He would also argue that the mobile phone allegedly used for sending the WhatsApp message was not recovered. Therefore, he prayed for setting aside the order of the learned Magistrate dismissing the discharge application and prayed for discharging the petitioner.

4. The petition was strongly opposed by the learned Public Prosecutor.

5. The allegations against the petitioner are that he has edited the photograph of the defacto complainant, who is a lady and attached the same along with the photograph of a male person and sent it through his WhatsApp to the WhatsApp account of CW2 with the intention to insult the modesty of the defacto complainant. There is a further allegation that after sending the said photograph to CW2, he has destroyed his mobile phone. The above allegations against the petitioner prima facie makes out the offencess as alleged by the prosecution. Therefore, I do not find any irregularity or illegality in the order passed by the learned Magistrate in CMP. No.3844/2025 in CC. No.2330/2025 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-II, Hosdurg, so as to call for any interference.

In the result, this Criminal Revision Petition is dismissed.

Sd/-