Three held in Aurangabad in Maharashtra for derogatory posts, photos on Facebook, WhatsApp

Three persons have been arrested for allegedly posting objectionable material and pictures about a religion on a social networking site and a popular messaging platform, police said on Monday. The arrests were made in two separate cases.

Santosh Yadav (37) and Sainath Yadav (21) were apprehended on Saturday after they allegedly uploading the objectionable material about a religion on Facebook which then got circulated on WhatsApp, a messaging application, said Salim Shaikh, Senior Inspector at Jawaharnagar Police Station in Aurangabad. An FIR was registered in this case on Thursday, the day when the posts came to light, Shaikh said adding, the offensive material on Facebook had led to tension in this communally-sensitive city in central Maharashtra.

In the second case, City Chowk police arrested a 24-year-old man, Amit Chavaria, for posting an allegedly objectionable image related to a particular community in a WhatApp group. "Chavaria was arrested on June 3. He posted the offensive picture on June 1 and the same day an FIR was registered," police added.

The arrests come in the backdrop of uploading of derogatory posts on Facebook that led to violence in Pune last week resulting in the killing of an IT professional.