Ahmedabad: Seven booked for Facebook posts on Hindu gods, goddesses

The FIR was registered for allegedly posting expletives against Hindu gods and goddesses in a bid to "disrupt social harmony and to create enmity between religious groups".




The Cyber Crime Cell of Ahmedabad has booked seven Facebook account holders for allegedly sharing objectionable posts about Hindu gods and goddesses on the social media networking site.

According to officials, a total of seven Facebook profiles and a Facebook group have been mentioned in the first information report registered at the Cyber Crime police station on Thursday night for allegedly posting expletives against Hindu gods and goddesses in a bid to “disrupt social harmony and to create enmity between religious groups”.

The FIR was lodged after the social media monitoring team of Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell took cognizance of the controversial Facebook posts on May 21.

The accused Facebook account holders mentioned in the FIR are Jagdish Goswami, Md Ali, Mofizul Hoque, Datta Tilewad, Sham Singh, Md Irfan, Bilal Hussain and a Facebook group. All accused have been booked under Indian penal code sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riots), 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth), 153 B(imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 294B (obscenity) along with sections of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act.

“It has come out in probe that the Facebook group admin and active members under a conspiracy used their own Facebook profile link and group to create enmity between different religious groups and disrupt social harmony without any reason,” read the complaint in the FIR.

The police have not been able to confirm whether the accused belong to Gujarat as they have sought help of Facebook to seek data of the accused account holders.

Speaking to The Indian Express, H N Prajapati, wireless sub-inspector of Cyber Crime PS, who filed the complaint, said, “As part of social media monitoring, our job is to keep a watch on any attempt to create rumour mongering or hatred through the use of social media and after taking cognizance, we booked a case. Now, we have sought help of Facebook to get legal data of the accused including the IP addresses of their devices to probe further in the case.”

? The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Ahmedabad News, download Indian Express App.

Source: Read Full Article