A 25-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh has reportedly been arrested on charges of sedition by the police for allegedly posting a picture with a caption “I support Pakistan” on Facebook. On being questioned by the police, the youth stated he had only uploaded the picture as his display picture as display picture on Facebook to garner attention and attract negative responses from the people on social media.
The incident came to the light after local Bajrang Dal activists lodged a complaint with the police. The youth has been identified as Babloo Khan who works as a mirror artisan and owns a shop in Bareilly. The police said that he uploaded the picture with the Pakistan flag and tagline on July 22. Babloo had, however, deleted the picture before it went viral on social media.
“We took cognizance of the post after we found it on the internet. Later, we also received a complaint in this connection from local Bajrang Dal activists,” Chandra Prakash, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Badaun was quoted as saying.
The police raided his shop and recovered the picture from his phone. He was arrested and booked for sedition under section 124 A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. “During interrogation, Khan told us that he used the controversial picture just to attract attention, negative comments and likes on Facebook,” the police said.
Earlier this year, UP police booked 60 people on charges of sedition after they allegedly waved Pakistani flag during a procession in Badaun. 60 people were booked after a number of people registered a complaint with the police asserting that the men had been waving Pakistan’s national flag during the procession that they took to put on the occasion of Juloos-e-Mohammadi and demanded immediate action against the accused.
