Bahraich: Five persons have been booked under the IT Act for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Facebook, the police said on Friday.
The FIR against the accused – Rana Sultan Javed, Zeeshan, Haroon Khan, Shafiq and King Khan – was registered on by one Gaurav Gupta Thursday in Bahraich. The five had allegedly posted the comments on Wednesday, after which local residents held a protest and demanded that the police register a complaint.
The accused made derogatory comments against the chief minister and RSS in their Facebook posts, he said.
Past cases
Just last month, the Assam police had arrested a teacher in Goalpara district for allegedly posting derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media. “Voting for Narendra Modi’s BJP candidate and garlanding a dog is the same thing,” he had posted.
The police arrested a Hindi teacher at Lakhipur High School, after an FIR was filed based on two complaints by the president of BJP Lakhipur unit and the Inspector of Schools of Goalpara district Nripen Das. He was released after being interrogated.
Also read: Assam Police Arrests Teacher for ‘Insulting’ Narendra Modi in Facebook Post
In September, Congress’ chief of communications Divya Spandana was booked for sedition for tweeting a photoshopped picture of Modi showing him painting “chor” (thief) on his own wax statue’s forehead. She shared it using the hashtag “ChorPMChupHai”.
Last November, a youth from Tamil Nadu was arrested for allegedly making abusive comments about the prime minister in a private Facebook conversation.
In June 2017, a Muslim schoolteacher in Assam was arrested after it was found that his WhatsApp profile carried “offensive” photos of Modi.
In October 2016, the target was the owner of a school in Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh. Mudassir Rana was arrested for sharing a Facebook post – without any comment – which was a cartoonish illustration of the faces of Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and several ministers of the BJP, depicted as the ten heads of Ravan.
(With inputs from PTI)