Ayodhya case: Post SC verdict 15 men arrested for objectionable social media posts in Madhya Pradesh

A man identified as Dinesh Chauhan was arrested in Bahodapur area while allegedly making an inflammatory post over a WhatsApp group (named Hindu Sena) after the apex court order.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

BHOPAL: More than 15 men have been arrested for making and sharing objectionable social media posts in the wake of Saturday’s Supreme Court order in Ayodhya case or violating prohibitory orders clamped under Section 144 of CrPc across Madhya Pradesh.

The arrests which were made on Saturday and Sunday saw a maximum of ten men being arrested in different police station areas of tribal-dominated Seoni district.

Confirming the arrests, the Seoni district police superintendent Kumar Prateek told The New Indian Express that ten men were arrested for making and sharing objectionable social media posts in Seoni Kotwali, Chhapara and Keolari police station areas on Saturday and Sunday in the wake of the apex court order.

All the arrested men have been sent to jail after being booked under the provisions of the IT Act.

In Gwalior district, a man identified as Dinesh Chauhan was arrested in Bahodapur area while allegedly making an inflammatory post over a WhatsApp group (named Hindu Sena) after the apex court order in Ayodhya case.

Four to five more men were arrested for violating the prohibitory orders in other parts of MP.

While no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere in Madhya Pradesh in the wake of Saturday’s Supreme Court verdict in Ayodhya dispute case, two state government employees have been suspended for making an objectionable post over social media and indulging in firecracker bursting publically despite prohibitory orders being in place across the state.

Mahesh Awad, a jail guard at the Gwalior Central Jail was suspended with immediate effect by the Gwalior Central Jail superintendent Manoj Kumar Sahu for participating in cracker bursting publicly with others in Shinde ki Chhavni area of Gwalior town despite prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrpC being in place in the district.

Instead of trying to stop the miscreants from burning crackers, the jail guard remained a mute spectator and participated in the act, which amounted to violation of Jail rules as well as MP Civil Conduct Rules due to which he has been suspended with immediate effect.

In neighbouring Guna district, Prem Singh Meena, a patwari posted at the Kumbhraj tehsil was suspended for making an objectionable Facebook post on Saturday.

Five police constables who were caught chatting on the WhatsApp Messenger Service while on duty in Jabalpur town on Saturday were suspended by the Jabalpur district police superintendent Amit Singh.

Meanwhile, with prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc being in place across the state, all kinds of processions and rallies, including religious processions (among them Eid-e-milad-un-nabi processions) were cancelled in various districts as a precautionary measure, following meetings between local administrations-police and the organizers of processions.

Sources at the state police HQ confided that the processions of all kinds, including all religious processions, were cancelled, to prevent the possibility of disturbance by anti-social elements.

Surprisingly, while no problem was faced by local administrations-police in around 35 communally hypersensitive and sensitive districts in getting the processions cancelled in these processions on Sunday, some resistance from organizers was faced in communally sensitive Dewas district and least communally sensitive Panna, Rewa, Chhatapur and Damoh districts.

Unconfirmed reports from Satna district, however, said religious processions were taken out in Amarpatan and Unchehra towns of the district on Sunday.

Keeping in mind resistance towards cancellation of processions and possible misuse of social media on Sunday (unconfirmed reports suggest some social media posts were made against processions cancellation move), internet services were suspended in at least five districts, including Khandwa, Chhatapur, Panna, Damoh and Dewas districts since Saturday-Sunday intervening night.

A senior police official at the state PHQ said, with 85 companies of state’s Special Armed Force (SAF) and two companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) being deployed across the state, no untoward incident has till now been reported from anywhere in the state.

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