Madras HC Upholds Bail Cancellation Over Instagram Posts Showing Accused As ‘King Of Vellore’ [Read Order]

Madras: The Madras High Court has upheld the cancellation of bail granted to an accused in an extortion and arson case, after viral Instagram posts showed him posing with a weapon and being hailed as the “king” of Vellore within months of his release.

Justice N. Ramesh, dismissing Crl. O.P. No. 26398 of 2026 filed by Janny @ Janny Paulrajan @ Johny @ Johny Paulraj against the State represented by the Inspector of Police, Virudhampet Police Station, was examining a challenge to a trial court order that had cancelled his bail in a case arising from Crime No. 178 of 2019, involving offences of extortion and setting fire to property.

The Court recorded that the petitioner had been released on bail by the High Court in December 2025, after nearly five years in custody, but that within five months an Instagram page carried a photograph of him “holding an object in the posture of one wielding a weapon,” drawing thousands of likes, followed by a video showing a gun resembling an assault rifle and posts depicting him “crowned and garlanded” as “Vellore King Johny Anna,” leading to a fresh case under the Arms Act and Section 111 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

Rejecting the petitioner's contention that the trial court had wrongly invoked its own earlier bail condition from a different case, the Court held that “the absence of an express condition does not mean that an accused on bail may commit offences without consequence,” since misuse of liberty through fresh criminal activity is “a recognised ground of cancellation in its own right.”

Applying the settled standard that “very cogent and overwhelming circumstances are necessary to cancel bail already granted,” the Court held that the petitioner's antecedents were not a new circumstance, as they were known to the Court when bail was granted, but that his post-release conduct had to be judged on its own.

The Court held that the public projection of the petitioner as a weapon-wielding “king” while witnesses remained to be examined in the trial “has a direct bearing on whether the witnesses who remain to be examined will come forward and depose freely,” and that the likelihood of witnesses being overawed “is real, and not a matter of speculation.”

While acknowledging that the trial court's order rested in part on a misplaced condition and an unsubstantiated recovery, and had gone too far in commenting on organised crime, the Court held that its own jurisdiction under Section 528 of the BNSS “is not exercised to restore a liberty which the material shows has been misused, only because the order under challenge is imperfectly reasoned.”

Dismissing the petition, the Court confirmed the cancellation of bail, directed the petitioner to surrender within a week, and directed the trial court to conclude the trial within six months on a day-to-day basis, while granting him liberty to apply afresh for bail once the remaining prosecution witnesses are examined. 

It also directed the Superintendent of Police, Vellore, to examine the Instagram pages projecting the petitioner as a figure to be feared and to take permissible action, clarifying that this made no finding on who ran the pages.

Appearances: Mr. B. Mohan, Advocate, appeared for the petitioner. Mr. R. Rajasekaran, Government Advocate (Criminal Side), appeared for the respondent.

Case Title: Janny @ Janny Paulrajan @ Johny @ Johny Paulraj vs. The State Rep. by The Inspector of Police, Virudhampet Police Station, Vellore District

[Read Order]