The Uttar Pradesh police have arrested a Greater Noida trader, Chand Quraishi, on Wednesday on charges of allegedly sharing an objectional post against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Facebook. The arrest was made after a complaint was filed by local BJP leaders.
In the written complaint submitted with the Gautam Buddha Nagar police, the Jawahar BJP Mandal General Secretary Rohit and Mandal Vice-President Prince Bhardwaj said that a person named Chand Qureshi, a resident of Jewar, had made abusive remarks against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. BJP leaders also said that Chand Qureshi’s remarks could lead to discrimination in society.
Quraishi has been booked under the Indian Penal Code section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), among others.
A police spokesperson said that Qureshi had shared a post on Facebook which was deemed offensive against the Chief Minister. A complaint was filed at Jewar police station by a local resident after which the accused was arrested.
The Uttar Pradesh revealed that during interrogation Chand Qureshi, a resident of Jewar town claimed that he shared the post by “mistake”.
Similarly, in November last year, UP police officials had picked up a journalist and social media troll, Prashant Kanojia after a case was registered at Hazratganj police station, Lucknow against him for posting derogatory tweets against Hindu gods and defamatory posts on UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
Prior to this, in June 2019, one Peer Mohammad, a scrap dealer and a resident of Gola area had shared an “objectionable post” on social media about UP CM Yogi Adityanath. He was sent to the district jail after one Umesh Kumar Yadav made a complaint regarding the post through his Twitter account. Another person, Ram Prasad, who is a manager of a nursing home and lives in Shahpur, was also sent to jail on Monday for allegedly posting “objectionable” post on social media.
