Bengaluru: Anti-CAA activist Amulya Leona Noronha given bail on condition of silence

The jailed student activist, Amulya Leona Noronha, who was released from judicial custody on Friday, was granted bail on a set of strict conditions, including that she should not make any public statements.

Advocate Prasanna R, who represents Amulya, said his client had been told orally by the fifth additional chief metropolitan magistrate court not to make public statements of any kind, including doing interviews.

However, according to another source, the restrictions also extend to her not using social media. "Her phone has not yet been returned to her," the source said.

Surjit Pai, a friend of Leona's who had been in touch with her while she was in jail and who briefly saw her after her release from the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison at 8 pm on Friday, said the activist looked happy.

"I could not speak to her, however, as she was whisked away by her family to an undisclosed location,” he said.

The release came after Amulya had spent 110 days in prison, during which Pai said he was in touch with her via the jail landline. "The system mandated that a prisoner could call three numbers daily using a public phone. She was given access to this facility in April, and one day out of the blue, I got a call from her," Pai explained.

Amulya told Pai she was in high spirits despite the situation she found herself in, adding that she was spending her time reading books from the prison library. "She gave me the impression that upon release, she intends to finish her studies," Pai said.

It had taken several petitions over a four-month period in the lower courts and the high court to secure bail for the 19-year-old student of journalism who had been arrested on February 20 after shouting "Pakistan Zindabad" at a rally. In her defence, Amulya said she had intended to raise slogans in favour of all nations to drive home the message of universal brotherhood. The organisers, however, cut her short.

On June 10, just hours after a sessions court rejected her bail application claiming she would go into hiding if released, the metropolitan magistrate court granted her "default bail", owing to a "technicality" as the Bengaluru police had failed to file the charge sheet within the stipulated 90 days.