"Defaming", "Castigating" FM, PM on Social Media; Cachar Police detains Congress' Abir Choudhury, seizes phone

Today, Cachar Police detained Congress’ Abir Choudhury and seized his mobile phone. This comes after an FIR was lodged at Silchar Sadar Police Station by Amitesh Chakraborty, Cachar district president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the Police complaint, Chakraborty wrote, “There is a fine line between criticising a political ideology and defaming the torch-bearer and office bearer of this country. The person named Abir Choudhury (facebook id) is been engaged and indulged in castigating, censuring, denouncing, and defaming the Prime Minister of India Home minister of this country relentlessly at the various level which not only is malevolence but is disgraceful to all the competent authority of this state.”

Chakraborty’s complaint added, “That this deceitful and seditious act of misleading the citizen of this country and creating hoax at various dimension must not be tolerated and an appropriate decision must be taken in this regard establishing a precedent in this society Henceforth, in the interest of the people at large and especially the law-abiding citizens of this country I am approaching you to take urgent action and I expect something positive on this regard form you. We shall ever be obliged for this act of yours.”

The case was registered on May 17, and speaking with Barak Bulletin, Chakraborty said, “I expect the Police to take necessary actions. Comparing PM and HM with criminals or putting out posts stating that they are triple mutants that is showcasing them as a virus on social media must not be entertained.”

The Officer in charge of Silchar Sadar Police Station, Ditumoni Goswami confirmed that today afternoon, the Police detained him from his house in Panchayat Road for interrogation and seized his mobile phone for further investigation. He was booked under Section 294/501 and 67 Information Technology Act.

Congress spokesperson, Jyotirindra Deycondemned the detention of his colleague. “Police is doing its duty and I have nothing against them. But registering a case just because someone shared a few links of published news on social media is not a sign of a healthy democratic system. Abir Choudhury only shared links of news that was published by others and not him. He did not even write anything along with the link. If this must be the attitude, the government must declare that any critisism of the ruling party will amount to people being jailed,” said Dey.

The matter remains under investigation and how the case proceeds is something that remains to be seen.