Mangalore man arrested for alleged derogatory FB post against Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy
Bangalore, Aug 6 (IBNS): The Central Crime Branch of the Karnataka police have arrested a man from Mangalore for allegedly posting derogatory remarks against Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Facebook.
The arrested person was identified as Prashanth Poojary
He was arrested on Friday, reports said.
Prashanth Poojary is the administrator of the Facebook Page "Kudla Trolls". A few days ago, he had allegedly uploaded a post "abusing" the Chief Minister, reported The News Minute.
The post shows a woman pointing to a picture of Kumaraswamy, asking, "Who is this?" In a picture below is the supposed answer, which referred to the CM with a common abuse in English, reported the media.
A CCB officer said the post was derogatory in nature.
“The post was derogatory in nature and could have instigated riots. Hence, we registered a suo motu case and arrested Prashanth. The post was taken down but there were a lot of fans of the Chief Minister who were getting inflamed because of the post. Also, the comment section was filled with abuses and threats,” a CCB officer told The News Minute.
“We noticed that the trolls on the page were mostly political in nature. The trolling against the CM began after the budget was announced. Initially, most of the posts were mocking the state budget. They were statements alleging that coastal districts were neglected in the budget. But the latest posts came when the issue of the separate state came up,” the CCB officer further said.
The arrested person was booked by the police under section 153 (wantonly causing provocation with intent to cause riot) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the IPC.
In a crucial move, the Centre recently withdrew its scheme to set up a Social Media Communication Hub (SMCH) in every district after the Supreme Court, hearing a PIL against the proposed move, commented that the decision was aimed to make a “surveillance State”.
The Union Government’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had floated the proposal.
Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra had challenged it by filing a PIL.,
JU Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra's arrest:
Interestingl, Kolkata-based professor of Jadavpur University (JU) and social group- Akranto Amra- activist Ambikesh Mahapatra was arrested by the police in 2012 for allegedly forwarding a cartoon on Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.
He was later released but the move had trigged a clamour for freedom of expression rights in West Bengal.
Image: Wikimedia commons
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