A Class 11 student in Uttar Pradesh has been arrested and sent to jail for an alleged 'objectionable' Facebook post against Samajwadi Party leader and the state's urban development minsiter Azam Khan, according to media reports.
The police acted against the boy after Khan's aide, Fasahat Ali, lodged an FIR against him last Sunday.
Later, in a court which sent the student to 14 days in judicial remand, the boy's family members said that he had merely shared the post on Facebook and not uploaded it, says the Times of India.
According to the police, the boy was picked up from his house on Monday evening and kept in police lock-up at the Ganj Kotwali thana of Rampur.
"The Facebook post carried derogatory language against a community and was wrongly attributed to Azam Khan," the report quoted Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Ganj Kotwali SHO, as saying.
On Tuesday, the boy was presented before the court of additional chief judicial magistrate which sent him to the district jail.
The student has been booked under Section 66-A of the Information Technology Act and sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc.), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 505 (public mischief) of the IPC.
{{/usCountry}}The student has been booked under Section 66-A of the Information Technology Act and sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc.), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 505 (public mischief) of the IPC.
{{/usCountry}}According to NDTV, Rampur SP Sadhna Goswami said, "During questioning, he told us that he did not understand the real meaning of what he was posting."
In 2013, Dalit writer and social activist Kanwal Bharti was similarly arrested by Rampur police for a Facebook post against Khan. Bharti, too, was booked under section 66-A of the Information Technology Act.