By Mubarak Ansari
Defamatory post morphing photos of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Bal Thackeray and others on Facebook sparks violence across the city; special forces deployed to maintain peace; many injured in stone pelting, property damaged in several areas.
The posts were found again on another social network on Sunday, but re-deleted. Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order), Pune police Sanjay Kumar told Mirror, “The situation was brought under control within the first few hours. We are investigating the source of the controversial post and the Facebook account.
Till Sunday evening, 117 persons were arrested, while 101 were put under preventive detention. We also identified some troublemakers enagaged in stone pelting and violence, and are keeping watch on them.” He added, “There were 52 such incidents, and we registered 34 cases. In terms of property damage, Bhosari was worst affected.
In its Noor Mohalla locality, 24 vehicles were damaged and attempts were made to set fire to four bikes.” Cops registered two cases against unidentified persons with Kothrud and Hinjewadi police stations for offences under Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the IPC and relevant sections of the IT Act.
There was some delay, as Facebook servers are located in the US. Though a court order is required to delete a post from the social networking website, in this case, CERT went out of its way to get the controversial posts deleted without it.
The photo of young Nikhil Tikone did the rounds on WhatsApp on Saturday night under the name of ‘Nihal Khan’, who reportedly posted the pictures. It was only on Sunday afternoon that it was cleared that he was Tikone, a resident of Kasba Peth where he was beaten up.
AFFECTED AREAS
Affected areas where stone pelting took place were mainly located to the city’s north, like Hinjewadi, Pimpri, Chinchwad, Bhosari, Khadki, Yerwada, Pune-Ahmednagar Road, Kharadi, Wanowrie, Hadapsar. Various parts of Pune district — Loni Kalbhor, Wagholi, Wadgaon Maval and Lonavla — were also affected, with highways including the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and Pune-Ahmednagar Highway being blocked. “We arrested 53 and registered 27 cases.
We deployed bandobasts in several areas and called in two SRPF companies,” said Manojkumar Lohiya, Superintendent of Police, Pune rural. City police deployed three companies of SRPF, Quick Response Team (QRT), and striking forces in the north of the city. One extra DCP rank officer was allotted to Zone III and Zone IV, under the North region.
Commissioner of Police Satish Mathur, who is on leave, appealed to citizens to maintain peace. “Do not forward any material/ photo/ post that might insult public feelings. In case of emergency, contact the police control room by dialling 100,” stated Mathur.
12 INJURED IN STONE PELTING
As many as 12 were admitted to the casualty ward of the Sassoon General Hospital on Sunday, after being injured in stone pelting that took place over the photoshopped images. Four were admitted there after 2 am; on Sunday evening, eight were brought in.
Of these, one resident of Kasba Peth suffered injuries leading to cerebral edema, and was unconscious till the time of going to print. Dr R Mhaske, chief medical officer at Sassoon hospital, said, “He was hit on his head badly and is currently under observation.”
(INPUTS BY NOZIA SAYYED)
(Author is associated with Pune Mirror)