A school chairman, arrested for posting "communal and inflammatory" material on Facebook, was denied bail and sent to judicial custody till Feb 18 Wednesday, police said.

Bail plea of the accused, Sanjay Choudhary, was rejected by the Agra chief judicial magistrate, assistant superintendent of police Dinesh Kumar said.

Choudhary, a civil engineer and chairman of Dev Public School in Agra, was booked and arrested Monday under section 153A of the Indian Penal Code and 66A/67 of IT Act for "defamatory and inflammatory posts against a particular community", police said.

His laptop, SIM card and data card were also seized.

Police acted after some Facebook users complained against the posts.

However, Choudhary's lawyer said the Facebook account was hacked and someone else posted the material.

There were reports that Choudhary was held for defamatory posts against politicians. But a police source said he was arrested allegedly for the communal hatred he was inciting.