Harda arrests: I have not filed case, says complainant

In a twist to the case in which four persons were arrested recently in Harda town of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly circulating derogatory comments on social media messenger WhatsApp against top personalities including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the complainant in police records on Wednesday denied lodging any complaint with the police.

In a twist to the case in which four persons were arrested recently in Harda town of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly circulating derogatory comments on social media messenger WhatsApp against top personalities including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the complainant in police records on Wednesday denied lodging any complaint with the police.

Talking to HT over phone, Anil Gurjar, complainant in the police records, said the persons arrested in the case were his friends and there was no question of him lodging complaint against them.

"I was summoned by cyber police to record my statement regarding the issue. They asked me to sign on a blank paper. Later, I came to know that I was made complainant in the case. This was done despite the fact that I clearly told the police officials that I didn't want to lodge a complaint," Gurjar said.

The four persons, identified as Pramod Tekam, Satish Gaud, Narayan Agrawal and Vikas Gurjar, were arrested by the police on July 27 on the charges of spreading derogatory comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, actor Salman Khan and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. They were produced in a local court the same day and granted bail.

When contacted over the issue, Harda superintendent of police (SP) Prem Babu Sharma said, "Gurjar has lodged a written complaint and we have submitted it to the court. There is no question that we would forcibly make him complainant."

He further said that he had received a complaint from a person, whose name could not be disclosed, that somebody was spreading derogatory and communal messages. "Following complaint, we formed a team comprising cyber experts and later traced down the persons who were circulating the messages," he said.