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print versionMaharashtra police to crack whip on those who ‘like’ offensive Facebook posts
Mateen Hafeez,TNN | Jun 3, 2014, 05.45 AM IST
MUMBAI: In an attempt to contain protests over objectionable posts on a social networking site about Chhatrapati Shivaji, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the Maharashtra police have decided to take action even against those who ’like’ the controversial posts.
Those who ’like’ such posts will be booked under the Information Technology Act and under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Nanded police have said. A person could face three to five years in jail if convicted under Section 66 (a) of the IT Act (punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc), applied in this case.
The police are still to trace the Internet Protocol address of the person (yet unidentified) who posted the material online but are not ruling out the possibility that a proxy server may have been used. Cases against unidentified persons have been filed in Mumbai, Nerul, Pune, Nashik, Yeola, Aurangabad, Satara and Sangli. Cops have also applied Section 295A IPC which deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.
The probe of the case filed at Mulund police station in Mumbai has been taken over by the Mumbai police’s cyber crime investigation cell.
"Three different pages about these objectionable posts were created on Facebook. We have blocked all of them. Police are also taking help from the computer emergency response team (CERT). Besides, a letter has been sent to Facebook to furnish details about the persons who created the pages," said Deven Bharti, inspector general of police (law and order).
There were protests across Maharashtra over the weekend after the posts containing allegedly derogatory references were spotted. While protesters in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad went on the rampage on Saturday, on Sunday, traffic was held up at the Khalapur toll plaza on the Mumbai-Pune expressway for about half-an-hour. Also, shops were shut in Nerul, Koparkhairane and Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai over rumours that a political party had called for a bandh.
