Former journalist held for defaming judges
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Thursday remanded journalistturned-legal activist Ketan Tirodkar to police custody till December 11. He was arrested by the cyber crime cell of Mumbai police, on Thursday morning for posting ‘objectionable’ content against judicial officials and bureaucrats.
Tirodkar has been actively writing several posts against the government as well as sitting judges of the Bombay High Court. He has also accused several judicial officials as well as government office bearers, of corruption. In a recent post, he had used ‘atrocious’ language for two women journalists and had made some ‘in-substantiate’ allegations against the journalists too.
Having been arrested, the cyber cell produced Tirodkar before the Chief Magistrate Court in southern Mumbai seeking his remand. Public Prosecutor Rajendra Suryavanshi, appearing for the Cyber Crime Cell said, “The investigating team has sought his custody on two main grounds. Firstly, the police wants to seize the devices, which he used to make those objectionable posts.”
“The second ground is to ascertain if he is making such posts on his own or if someone else is behind him, on whose orders, he is posting such content on the social media,” Suryavanshi added.
Mumbai police crime branch’s Cyber Cell at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) has arrested Ketan Tirodkar (52) on Thursday for defaming female bureaucrats and judicial officials on his social media in July this year. Tirodkar has been booked for printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory (501), criminal intimidation (506), defamation (500), making statements conducing to public mischief [505 (2)] and other section of Indian Penal Code and punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form (67) of Information Technology Act.
The investigating team has sought his custody on two main grounds. Firstly, the police wants to seize the devices, which he used to make those objectionable posts. The second ground is to ascertain if he is making such posts on his own or if someone else is behind him, on whose orders, he is posting such content on the social media
—Rajendra Suryavanshi