Agartala, 06 November
Tripura Police on Saturday booked 102 social media account holders under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), criminal conspiracy and forgery charges and asked the authorities of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to freeze their accounts and capture all details of those individuals. Notice given to inform. A senior police officer said.
Tripura Police has booked four Supreme Court lawyers under the stringent Act and various sections of the IPC for promoting communal hatred with their social media posts on the recent violence targeting Muslims, a senior official said on Friday. Case has been registered.
Tripura Police on Saturday issued notice to the Twitter Headquarters in San Francisco, United States of America to immediately freeze the accounts of an officer in charge of West Agartala police station accused of spreading objectionable news.
“…some individuals/organizations are publishing/posting distorted and objectionable news/statements on Twitter regarding the recent clashes and alleged attacks on mosques of Muslim communities in the State. In publishing these news/posts individuals/organizations have been found using photographs/videos of certain other incidents, fabricated statements/comments in the presence of criminal conspiracy to promote enmity between religious groups/communities. The post has the potential to incite communal tension in the state of Tripura between people belonging to different religious communities, which may result in communal riots”, the notice was sent to the officials of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
IPC sections 153A (promoting dissent or feelings of enmity), 153B (allegations, claims prejudicial to national unity), 469 (forgery), 471 (cheating) against the social media account holders at the same West Agartala police station Cases were registered under or dishonestly using as genuine forged document), 503 (threatening), 504 (intentional insult) and section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) 13, he said. .
Police said similar notices were also sent to Facebook and YouTube officials.
“The 102 people against whom the notice was issued have been asked to appear before the police and explain their position,” the official said.
The names of those who have been charged have not been disclosed by the police.
West Tripura district superintendent of police Manik Das had said that a group of Supreme Court lawyers had visited Tripura last Tuesday and after his visit it was seen that social media was circulating expressing dissatisfaction about the recent communal incidents. There were many posts. “Police have registered a case and want to know whether the posts were made by him or were they fake posts,” he said.
Lawyers were accused of targeting the Muslim community, including women, and vandalizing a mosque.
The team had demanded appropriate police action against the attackers, rumor mongers and officials who remained passive during the attacks following violence against Hindus in Bangladesh during Durga Puja this year.
A case was registered against four lawyers of the SC at West Agartala police station on November 3 under various sections of the IPC including 153 (A) relating to promoting feelings of enmity, enmity or hatred between different groups on grounds of religion. ) and (B) are included. Race etc., 469, 504, 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), other than section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Under the strict UAPA, the offender could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty.
The lawyers belong to various organizations including Lawyers for Democracy, National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO) and PUCL.
The notices were served to Supreme Court advocate Estesham Hashmi, advocate Amit Srivastava, Lawyers for Democracy coordinator, NCHRO national secretary Ansar Indori and PUCL member Mukesh Kumar.
In a notice to the lawyers, the police had asked them to remove the social media post and appear before investigators by November 10.
A mosque was vandalized and two shops torched in Chamtila during a Vishwa Hindu Parishad rally on 26 October, which was called to protest the communal violence in neighboring Bangladesh.
Police said three houses and some shops allegedly owned by Muslims were also vandalized in the nearby Rowa market.
The state government had on October 29 alleged that a group with vested interests had hatched a conspiracy against the administration to create unrest and tarnish its image in Tripura by uploading fake pictures of a burning mosque on social media after the October 26 incident. It was PTI