Police action draws all-round flak

Lawyers and activists in the city were up in arms on hearing of the arrest of a 21-year-old woman for posting comments against Sunday’s bandh on a social networking site.

The police booked the woman, who is from a minority community, for hurting religious sentiments and under the Information Technology Act, 2000, for questioning the shutdown in the city on the day of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s funeral on her Facebook page.

On Sunday, a mob of 2,000 Sainiks attacked and ransacked her uncle’s orthopaedic clinic at Palghar.

“How can this act amount to hurting religious sentiments or communal disturbance? No one took action against the forced bandh. So, whoever is not following this ideology is being targeted by the police. This is nothing but criminal intimidation. Has a case been lodged against the destruction of her uncle’s clinic?” asked advocate Susan Abraham.

Another woman who ‘liked’ the comment was also arrested and released on bail on Monday.

Abraham called the charges “purely unconstitutional”
Human rights activist and advocate Shakil Ahmed said if a politician who was indicted by the Srikrishna Commission for stoking the fire of communal riots was never held accountable, why was this girl targeted?  “The state government is leaving the Constitution aside and is kneeling before Fascist forces. It’s a pity,” Ahmed said.