Mumbai, Jan 6 (PTI) A court in Mumbai on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of social activist Harshali Potdar in a case pertaining to a controversial social media post during the coronavirus lockdown.

Additional Sessions judge P P Rajvaidya rejected her plea.

The judge also said that the interim protection granted by the court on August 29 last year, when she had filed the anticipatory bail application, stood vacated.

Police had bookedPotdar, a leader of Republic Panther, in April last year for allegedly spreading enmity between two groups and doing acts prejudicial to peace and harmony through hersocial media post.

Potdar had shared a Facebook post, in which she had allegedly accused the government of targeting a particular community during the lockdown.

The post had also accused the government of blaming a particular community for spreading the virus.

Fearing arrest, she had moved a pre-arrest bail plea before a sessions court here on August 27 last year.

Advocate Ishrat Khan, appearing for Potdar, had submitted that no case is made out against her.

The lawyer told the court that the entire case was bogus, and alleged that since she is a social worker, the prosecution intends to implicate her in false cases.

Potdar's name had also appeared in one of the FIRs registered by Pune police in connection with2017 Elghar Parishad violence.

She hadallegedly attended the event.

However, according to her lawyer, Potdar's name didn't feature in any of the charge sheets filed by the probe agencies in connetion with the case.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)