Blasphemous post on social media, man arrested from Kalapathar

Hyderabad: Careless use of social media can land you in jail. Strict legal action will be taken against those involved in sharing objectionable content especially those hurting religious sentiments. This was told by Additional Commissioner of police South Zone Mr. A Babu Rao. He told that a man has been arrested from Kalapathar and remanded in judicial custody in this connection.

According to sources a youth had lodged complaint with Kalapathar police that a “blasphemous” image has been circulated on a social networking site; thus hurting religious sentiments of Muslims. Acting swiftly against the alleged mischief maker, the South Zone police tracked the IP address and picked up a person identified as Satyaranjan Maharana (25) of Kalapathar. He was remanded to judicial custody. The accused was booked under sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and the non-bailable 153A (creating enmity between the two groups on the ground of religion) of the Indian Penal Code.

The issue led to mild tension in Kalapathar area of the Old City late on Friday night after a group of locals staged a protest near the police station.

Earlier also such nefarious practices were done to hurt the sentiment of Muslims however on the appeal of Muslim religious leaders and peaceful protest Commissioner of Police had assured stringent action. “In the past, we have registered as many as seven cases which pertain to objectionable postings on social media. Few URLs on the internet have been immediately removed and certain cases have already been referred to cyber crime wing of the Central Crime Station,” said deputy commissioner of police (South Zone) V Satyanarayana.

Preliminary investigation into the incident revealed that the post originated from a Central Asian country and Maharana circulated it.