Facebook row: Action against cops likely today

As Monday was spent in honour of the police officers and other personnel that lost their lives during the 26/11 terror attacks four years ago, action against the cops involved in the arrest of the two girls from Palghar for a Facebok post has been delayed. The official announcement of the action against them is now expected on Tuesday.

Home minister RR Patil had a meeting with CM Prithviraj Chavan on the issue, in which he submitted a file with his remarks on the report submitted by  inspector general (Konkan range), Sukhawinder Singh. The CM is expected to sign the file for action against the police officers on Tuesday.

The Palghar police had arrested a 21-year-old girl for posting a Facebook update against the city shutting down due to Bal Thackeray’s death. Her friend had also been arrested for ‘liking’ the status.

Sources say taking action against the cops was delayed by another day as Patil did not want it to come in the way of honouring the 26/11 martyrs. He said a joint statement about the same would be issued on Tuesday.

In his report, the IG stated that the IPC sections had been wrongly applied in this case and also recommended action against the superintendent of police, additional superintendent of police and senior inspector of Palghar police station.