The youngster from Bareilly, who was arrested on March 18 for allegedly posting "objectionable" comments against senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Facebook, is a relieved boy now.
The youngster from Bareilly, who was arrested on March 18 for allegedly posting "objectionable" comments against senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Facebook, is a relieved boy now.
After the Supreme Court scrapped the section in a landmark judgment on Tuesday, the Std XI student said, "I am happy that section 66A has been scrapped, but I had a very rough time when I was booked under the provision, which entailed a jail term of three years. I was stressed and was made to spend two days in jail."
"I was also embarrassed about what I had posted as it had happened by mistake. I am still recovering... it will take some time for me to get completely normal on social media," the teenager told reporters on Tuesday.
A resident of Rampur district in west UP, he was sent to jail for allegedly making derogatory remarks about a particular community and then attributing them to Khan, a powerful UP cabinet minister and a "terror" of sorts in Rampur.
The student had been booked under section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act and sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc.), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 505 (public mischief) of the IPC.
The 16-year-old's father too is relieved and happy but, he says, hasn't forgotten how much his son suffered. "All this has affected his studies and mental stability and our family as a whole," he said.
The boy's maternal uncle Nawab Khan said, "The mental damage was huge and it will take him some time for him to recover."
The boy's arrest had sparked off widespread criticism, which soon spread nationwide. There were fiery protests on the streets by social groups. Predictably, the event provided fodder for the cannons of the Samajwadi Party's political opponents, who cried bloody murder as they demanded resignation and even arrest of Khan.
This is not the first time that the controversial section has been grossly misused by one in power. In 2013, Dalit writer and social activist Kanwal Bharti was arrested by the Rampur police for a Facebook post, that one too against Khan. Bharti too was booked under section 66A.
Though he was released on bail later, he would, like the young boy in the present case, carry the scars of bullying and beating at the hands of the men in uniform for a lifetime.
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