A sessions court on Monday granted bail to Delhi-based lawyer Vibhor Anand, arrested last month by Mumbai Police for allegedly spreading conspiracy theories in connection with the deaths of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and talent manager Disha Salian. Also on Monday, a Mumbai Police team arrested a man from Nagpur who allegedly made derogatory remarks about Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya.

Anand was arrested on October 15. Three days later a magistrate court remanded him in judicial custody. He had sought bail arguing that his custody was no longer required, but the court rejected his plea on October 23, after which he moved the sessions court. However, while granting him bail on Monday, the court stayed its order until November 6 for the prosecution to file an appeal.

Advocate Ashok Saraogi submitted that in order to keep himself up-to-date, Anand had been watching various TV channels, including one where the anchor had said that Rajput had been murdered only because Salian had been murdered, and that there was a party at her house a day before she died by suicide. The plea stated that Anand was “made to believe” that the statements on news channels were true.

The plea claimed that after Anand realised that his tweets could create controversy, he withdrew them, and that he had no intention to defame anyone or cause any offence.

The defence made further submissions claiming that though his client was a practising advocate, he had been mentally disturbed during the past few months, due to chronic alcohol abuse. He also submitted that Anand was being treated for another condition at a hospital.

Mirror had reported on October 17 that Anand was arrested after an FIR was registered in August after he uploaded social media posts in which he allegedly made defamatory statements against senior Maharashtra Cabinet ministers, linking them to the two cases.

A police team meanwhile arrested Sameet Thakkar, who allegedly made objectionable comments about the CM, his son, and a Congress minister, from Nagpur.

The team picked Thakkar up after he was released on bail in a case registered in Nagpur. He is being brought to the city.

In July, a case of obscenity and defamation was registered against Mumbai-based Thakkar. According to the FIR, Thakkar on July 1 sent tweets referring to Aaditya as ‘Mohammad Azam Shah of Maharashtra’ and ‘baby penguin’ and his father as a ‘modernday Aurangzeb’. In another tweet, he allegedly used abusive language against the Congress’ Nitin Raut.