Karnataka man Harish Bangera is set to be released from Saudi Prison where he has been lamenting since December 2019 after being arrested over blasphemy charges. As per reports, Sathish Kumar Bajal, President of Mangaluru Association Saudi Arabia (MASA) said that he will soon be coming back home. His tickets have been paid for and he will hopefully return soon.
Two persons from Moodbidri have been arrested in October 2020 for impersonating a Mangaluru-based native, Harish Bangera and posting derogatory and blasphemous content on Facebook.
According to the reports, two brothers from Moodabidri – Abdul Huyez and Abdul Thuyez had created a fake account on Facebook in the name of Harish Bangera to posted derogatory comments on the Saudi Crown Prince and Mecca, the holy site of Muslims across the world. Bangera was arrested by Saudi Arabia police in December 2019 over the content.
Harish Bangera, who hails from Kundapur, worked as an AC technician in Damman, Saudi Arabia. On December 21, a series of Facebook posts were uploaded allegedly from his purported Facebook account abusing and mocking Islam and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince. One such post was a picture of Kaaba in Mecca with the caption, “Next Ram Temple in Mecca. Be ready for fight”.
Here is another image posted from Harish Bangera’s Facebook profile.
Soon, the post went viral, eliciting a strong response, which also came to the notice of the Saudi authorities after a complaint was registered against Harish accusing him of blasphemy. The Saudi police arrested him within an hour of receiving the complaint. After Harish was arrested, his employers had also removed him from the job with immediate effect.
However, Harish’s wife had filed a complaint at an Udupi police station after Harish had pled innocence and alleged conspiracy against him.
Upon the investigation, the police found out that the two brothers Abdul Huyez and Abdul Thuyez, created a fake account on December 19, 2019, and two days later, they uploaded the blasphemous post in the name of Bangera, leading to his arrest. The police traced the phone that was used to create the fake Facebook account. The phone belonged to Abdul Thuyez, who was taken to custody along with his brother.
The police hadnow registered a case against the two accused of impersonating Harish Bangera. The police also translated and presented the charge sheet to the Saudi authorities through the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian embassy in Saudi to obtain a release order for Harish Bangera.
