UNI editor gets bail in caste slur case

The Delhi High Court Tuesday granted bail to United News of India (UNI) Joint Editor Neeraj Bajpai, accused of making a derogatory caste-laced remark against a colleague.

Justice Sunil Gaur granted bail to Bajpai on a personal bond of Rs.50,000 and surety of like amount.

The trial court last week dismissed the bail pleas of Bajpai, another journalist of UNI and an accountant and sent them to jail for making casteist remarks, saying the allegation against them are "very serious".

Bajpai, Univarta deputy chief of bureau Ashok Upadhyay and accounts department's M.L. Joshi are accused of making derogatory remarks against Virender Verma, a Dalit.

The police chargesheet filed in November said the accused had passed "casteist and derogatory remarks" against a colleague in March.

It said Verma had gone to Bajpai's office where Upadhyay and Joshi, also a union leader, shouted at him and made remarks he considered derogatory.

The accused say the complaint was false and fabricated.

Police booked the three under section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act that deals with punishment for offences of atrocities for causing insult.