Jailed Congress leader Imran Masood gets bail in hate speech case

A local court on Wednesday granted bail to jailed Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Saharanpur, Imran Masood, after he was arrested for delivering a hate speech in which he allegedly threatened to "chop" BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi "into pieces".

Masood, 40, was arrested on the basis of a video clipping that went viral on the web. The clipping showed threatening to "chop Narendra Modi to pieces", igniting a new political controversy prior to next month's general election.

He is now facing criminal charges for his hate speech, though he maintains that he never threatened to kill Modi, but only to teach him a lesson.

A First Information Report (FIR) accuses him of violating the Model Code of Conduct, but it is not clear when and where the comments were made. Local police said they received the video CD on Thursday.

Masood claims he spoke those words eight months ago, when he was with the Samajwadi Party.