Facebook post on Thackeray: Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan under pressure to sack cops
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The furore over the arrests of two Palghar girls, who had lamented on an internet post the shutdown due to Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray's funeral, snowballed into a larger national controversy on Tuesday with the Union home ministry seeking a report from the Maharashtra government. The Information Technology ministry is also looking into whether it was proper to charge the girls under the IT Act.
In Mumbai, the Maharashtra government said on Tuesday that the inspector-general of the Konkan was expected to complete his inquiry into the arrests and submit his report by today. Both chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and home minister R R Patil said that unless they received the I-G's report, it would be wrong to take action against erring police officers.
"Give us some time, we are waiting for the report of the Konkan I-G. We will take such action against the erring officials that the entire police will remember it for a long time," Patil promised.
"The inquiry will look into whether the arrests were warranted and whether the sections applied were correct," said Patil. Chavan said, "We will take stern action against the erring police officials. No one will be spared." However, both Patil and Chavan stopped short of saying if any police official would be suspended. There have been calls from several sections of society for action against the cops for arresting the Palghar girls Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan, both 21. Shaheen had uploaded the post, while Rinu 'liked' it.
Chavan has also assured former SC justice and Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju that strict action would be taken against those responsible for arresting Shaheen and Rinu. The Palghar police charged them with attempting to promote hatred between groups and using a communication device to send a grossly offensive message.
Katju had on Monday written to Chavan asking for action against the police.
While the police arrested the girls within hours of the facebook post being uploaded, it was only on Tuesday that they arrested 10 men for vandalizing Shaheen's uncle's hospital. Dr Abdul Dhada's hospital was vandalised at around 9.30pm on Sunday night. The police levelled several IPC charges against the 10, including rioting and endangering the life of others, and also pressed charges under the Criminal Law Amendment Act and Maharashtra Medical Act. Patil said, "The IG's probe will also investigate the vandalism."
Palghar Shiv Sainiks denied on Tuesday that the 10 alleged vandals were members of the party. However, the Sainiks were present during the court proceedings and took the accused away in vehicles after they got bail. The vandalism led to Rs 10 lakh in property being destroyed.
After the girls' arrests, people across India took to internet and other fora to decry the "death of democracy". There were calls for the men who ransacked the hospital to be prosecuted, the girls to be compensated for their mental agony and for the policemen who effected the arrests to be punished.
Both the CM and Patil said it was time to take a fresh look at the IT Act. "We have to study if the comments on facebook are private or public. When the IT Act came into force, the concept of facebook was not in existence," Chavan said. However, minister of state for communications and IT Milind Deora said the issue was not about amending the IT Act, but preventing its misuse by the police. Deora said, "If I had been 22 years old, I would be afraid to live in this city. What city are they building in Mumbai? Is it a society built on fear or do they want it to be liberal? The police should act without fear and not buckle under pressure from any politician." He called for an independent inquiry into the girls' arrests.
Both girls Shaheen and Rinu have been frightened by the entire episode. "I have apologized because I want peace and harmony," said Shaheen, who took down her post on Sunday itself and apologized on Facebook. "But this has been a nightmare," she added. "The treatment meted out to us was unfair." She added that somebody from California had hacked her Facebook account. "I have registered a police complaint mentioning that I will not be responsible for whatever is posted through the fake account," she said.
When chief minister Chavan was asked why he was waiting for the I-G's report when DGP Sanjeev Dayal had already submitted a preliminary report to the home department saying the arrests were uncalled for, Chavan reiterated that action would be taken only after the I-G gave his report. "My government has taken serious note of the entire incident. Those Shiv Sena workers who vandalized a local clinic have been arrested and stern action will taken against those who take the law into their own hands," Chavan said.
Chavan did express surprise over the manner in which the Palghar police invoked the IT Act, particularly Section 66A. "I have no specific information, but I was told that a senior IPS official did caution the Palghar police against invoking the provisions of the IT Act," he said.
Meanwhile, the adjectives flew freely Tuesday as Indians across all sectors expressed their outrage at the arrests of the two young women. "Dictatorship is what we witnessed over the last weekend... Can one not even express their feelings now? Are we in democracy or dictatorship," asked a young man.
Facebook post on Thackeray: Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan under pressure to sack cops - The Times of India