Mumbai police ask Facebook to block defaced Ambedkar photo link

Armed with a court order, city police today asked popular social networking site Facebook to block a page, which allegedly carried a defaced photo of Dalit icon Babasaheb Ambedkar.

According to police, the photo was posted in a page 'We Hate Ambedkar', created by an unknown user.

"Initially, when we contacted Facebook they said that they can't block the link unless there is a court order," joint commissioner of police (Crime) Himanshu Roy said.

Crime branch sleuths today got an order in this regard from a local court and sent a scanned copy to the Facebook office in the United States of America, he said.

Police has registered a case under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act against the unknown person for posting the photo on the website, Roy said adding that further investigations in the case are on.

Meanwhile, police has arrested five persons, who were among the about 300 people protested outside the Khar police station, demanding that the defaced photo be deleted from Facebook.

The five had allegedly vandalised a few vehicles and pelted stones in the wee hours of Tuesday, police said.