The Indian Express
SRINAGAR
Police on Thursday arrested a Kashmiri man and booked him on charges of sedition for commenting on, forwarding and “liking” several “anti-India” posts on a social networking site.
Police said that Taufiq Ahmed, who had studied in Bhilai and now worked in the city, was arrested from a train at Sagar railway station in Madhya Pradesh and sent to judicial custody.
They added that an FIR in the case had been registered based on a complaint from Ratan Yadav, the Bhilai coordinator of Bajrang Dal.
“The complaint was that Tausif Ahmad, who is from Kashmir, had “commented on, liked and shared” several things “against India”, such as ‘India Go Back’, on Facebook.
One of these, for instance, was the picture of a rat being swept away by a broom.
“Based on this complaint, we filed a case under section 124A (sedition) of the IPC,” said Amresh Mishra, SP, Durg.
The offence under section 124A is defined as “whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the government established by law in India”.
Police said Ahmed had graduated from Rungta College of Engineering and Technology in 2012, and had been a frequent visitor to Bhilai since.
“For the last few months, he was working in Bhilai with Vivo Mobiles. A complaint was registered against him yesterday and he left immediately on a train that connects Durg and Jammu. We notified the railway authorities and identified the bogie he was travelling in. Madhya Pradesh Police assisted us,” Mishra said.
Madhya Pradesh Police confirmed that they acted on information from police in Durg. Sachin Atulkar, SP Sagar, said, “We got information about this person from Durg police. There was no resistance during arrest, and nothing objectionable was found on his person.”
