Two women were arre-sted on Sunday in Tha-ne, near Mumbai, for a Facebook post questioning Mumbai’s total shutdown after the death of Shiv Sena sup-remo Bal Thackeray, leading to nationwide outrage over gross misuse of the Information Technology Act to throttle dissent.
The two women, mass media students from Palghar, were released on bail Monday. The police also replaced IPC Section 295-A (insulting religious beliefs), applied earlier, with Section 505[2] (promoting enmity and hatred).
Shaheen Dhada, 21, posted a Facebook comment on the Mumbai shutdown. “We should remember Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev”, it said. Renu Srinivas, 20, her college junior, had “liked” the post.
“Shaheen put her views on Facebook. When I received a call around 6 pm by someone saying it had hurt their sentiments, I called up my brother... Shaheen not only apologised, but also deleted the comments,” said her uncle, orthopaedic surgeon Abdul Dhada. Dr Dhada said a mob of Shiv Sainiks went to his clinic and vandalised it.
Shiv Sena’s Palghar chief Bhushan Salu-nkhe had filed a police complaint at 9 pm Sun-day saying they considered Thackeray a “god”, so a case should be filed against both women for offending religious sentiments.
Press Council chief Markandey Katju demanded the arrest of the police officers involved in arresting the women, saying wrongful arrest was itself a criminal offence. In an email to Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan, he warned of “legal consequences” if the CM didn’t act. “I will deem it that you are unable to run the state in a democratic manner... legal consequences will follow,” he said.