Cops close Palghar Facebook case

Police today dropped all charges against two girls from Palghar whose arrest over a Facebook post criticising shutdown in Mumbai during Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's funeral last month had sparked an uproar.

A month after two young women – Shaheen Dhada, 21, and her friend, Rinu Srinivasan, 20, from Palghar – were arrested for posting comments over Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s funeral on Facebook, the police, on Tuesday, filed a case closure report in court.

The development comes after widespread criticism over the arrests of the two young women.

A senior officer from Thane rural police said they had filed a closure report under the C summary, appealing to the court to shut the case. A C Summary report states that a misunderstanding led to a case being registered. It was also filed under section 169 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which states that the accused was released as the evidence was deficient.

“The police should have filed a B Summary report which states that the case was false and filed with malicious intent. Under this, action can be initiated against the complainant under sections of the Indian Penal Code for filing a complaint with intention to malign someone’s image,”said lawyer Sudhir Gupta who represented the two women.