India: ‘Insult to RSS chief’ - Police in a fix after booking youth under scrapped 66(A) of IT Act

The Indian Express - March 21, 2016

While the Sheopur police are still clueless, their counterparts in Anuppur have booked another Muslim youth under the same section of the IT Act for his Facebook comment against the RSS chief.

Written by Milind Ghatwai | Bhopal

Two youths were arrested in Madhya Pradesh for sharing online a morphed image of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

More than four months after the arrest of a Muslim youth for allegedly posting an offensive comment against RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Facebook, the Sheopur Police in Madhya Pradesh have no idea how to submit the chargesheet. Reason: The police had booked him under Section 66 (A) of the IT Act, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court months ago.

Sattar Khan, 25, was arrested from Balapura locality of Sheopur town for his Facebook comment on November 2, 2015. He was later released on bail.

“We don’t know how to proceed because we came to know later that the Section 66(A) was struck down by the SC. We have sent the case details to the district prosecution office,’’ in-charge of Kotwali Police Station Satish Singh Chouhan told The Indian Express Sunday.

“We arrested him because local RSS cadres were angry about his post and came in large number to register a case,’’ said Chouhan.

While the Sheopur police are still clueless, their counterparts in Anuppur have booked another Muslim youth under the same section of the IT Act for his Facebook comment against the RSS chief.

Mohammed Danish was also booked under Section 66 (A) and Section 153 (A) of the IPC. The case was registered at the Kotma Police Station for a comment he made nearly a week ago.

Kotma Police Station in-charge Sunil Gupta said Danish, a student of Industrial Training Institute, was arrested from Raipur in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, where he had gone to get his mother treated.

Gupta added that Danish was released on bail by a local court. Police again detained him under Section 151, CrPC saying he faced several criminal cases, including an attempt to murder case.

Danish’s arrest followed arrest of two Muslim youths in Khargone district, who were booked for allegedly sharing a morphed image of the RSS chief.

- Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/insult-to-rss-chief-cops-in-a-fix-after-booking-youth-under-scrapped-66a-of-it-act