Recently, the Zomato incident has created a storm on Social Media after a Twitter user called Amit Shukla had announced that he did not want a ‘non-Hindu’ deliveryman since it was the month of Shravan and it went against his faith. After the barrage of abuse that was hurled on Amit Shukla, it seems his troubles are just beginning.
The Jabalpur police in Madhya Pradesh have decided to take suo motu action against Amit for posting a tweet that inflamed communal passions. Amit Shukla has been asked to sign a bond of Rs 1,00,000. The police will watch his activities over the next six months. If repeats the offence during this period, the bond money will be taken by police and he will be put in jail.
OpIndia spoke to the Superindentent of Police who confirmed to us that he has taken suo motu cognisance and is initiating preventive measure against Amit Shukla.
SP Amit Singh said that he will be initiating action against Shukla under 107 and 116 of CRPC. He said that the case will be filed in the Gorakhpur police station under preventive measures since according to him, Shukla’s tweet could inflame communal passions and hurt religious sentiments.
If the preventive measure if not adhered to by Amit Shukla, then he will be ‘jailed for breach of trust’. He said he took suo motu cognisance of the tweet because it was circulated widely on social media and because Jabalpur has been historically communally sensitive and has a large Muslim population. He also said that Shukla’s tweet was against the constitution of India because there was no concept of untouchability any more.
He also said that his tweet was breaching the fundamental right of the other person. He even said that once the preventive action is taken, even if Shukla tweets or retweets communally sensitive posts, the remaining period of the preventive bond will be invoked and he will be sent to jail.
When asked about the several other communally ‘sensitive’ posts that are shared and why only this post is being taken cognisance of, SP Amit Singh said that Jabalpur is a communally sensitive area with a large Muslim population. He also said that it was the festive season and communal tensions could be flared.
When asked which festival he is talking about, he said the Kanwar Yatra is still on, with several other festivals like Nag Panchami and Eid scheduled to be celebrated. He also said that other police stations should take action for the other posts which fall under their jurisdiction.
After the controversy erupted, Zomato, in an effort to grandstand had then tweeted that ‘food has no religion’. However, after it was pointed out that they themselves put religion on food by offering ‘Halal certified’ restaurant lists, they had issued a statement saying that will also be willing to provide Jathka meat if the demand arises.
The controversy was further fuelled when Uber Eats expressed support for Zomato. Interestingly, Uber itself had remained mum when ‘liberals’ had attacked the brand for one taxi sporting an ‘angry Hanuman’ sticker.
