UP YOUTH ARRESTED FOR FB POST AGAINST AZAM KHAN

LUCKNOW: Nearly two years after Dalit activist Kanwal Bharti was arrested for a Facebook comment against UP minister Azam Khan, a youth was picked up by the Rampur police on a similar charge, kicking up a controversy much like Bharti’s arrest did earlier.

The accused, Vicky Khan, reports said, was a Class 11 student of a reputed Bareilly school. A police team arrested him for creating an ‘objectionable, communal comment’ in Khan’s name.

Rampur’s district chief Sadhana Goswami said, “He has confessed to his act, which is a crime under the IT act. So we have proceeded as per rules. Such mischievous communal posts can create trouble.”

The police have booked the youth, whose age couldn’t be verified, under section 66 A of the IT Act even though his family reportedly told the court which sent the youth to judicial custody that he had merely shared the post, not created it.

However, Goswami maintained the youth had confessed to his crime. “He admitted creating, uploading the objectionable content after attributing it to the minister,” she claimed.

Other sections that have been slapped on him include: section 153 (a) – spreading enmity among people on religious grounds, section 504 (deliberate mischief with the intention of creating trouble) and section 505 (indulging in mischief).