Maharashtra student held for posting objectionable content against Shinde, Fadnavis

The student of the Mahatma Phule University in Rahuri of Ahmednagar district was arrested by the cyber cell of the Maharashtra police, according to an official statement.

A 29-year-old PhD student was arrested in Maharashtra on Sunday for allegedly using a Twitter handle to post objectionable comments against chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

The accused had reportedly also targeted women journalists and abused them on another microblogging site. (Representational Image)

The student of the Mahatma Phule University in Rahuri of Ahmednagar district was arrested by the cyber cell of the Maharashtra police, according to an official statement.

The accused had reportedly also targeted women journalists and abused them on another microblogging site. He posted all the content using a virtual private network to give the impression that he was doing so from Mumbai.

According to the officials, the cyber wing had to conduct a technical analysis of the tweets to locate the accused.

Officials said the cyber cell had, on October 14, received a complaint about an unidentified person using a Twitter handle to post objectionable comments. First, the team detained two suspects and transported them to Mumbai for investigation. Later, the investigation team arrested the accused at the university, and two mobile phones and a laptop were seized.

According to an official, police are looking into the possibility that some of the content posted by the accused was created by others who were complicit in the crime. The seized devices have been sent to cyber forensic experts to investigate whether more people were involved in creating the content of the tweets.

Following his arrest, the accused was brought before a local court on Saturday and remanded in custody till November 2.

(With PTI inputs)