The Nungambakkam police on Tuesday arrested a 37-year-old man from Washermenpet on charges under two sections, including Section 66 (a) of the Information Technology Act, for a series of Facebook posts and threat emails over a minor argument about dogs.
The police are also on the lookout for another person in the case.
Sources with the Nungambakkam police said, it all began a year ago after the complainant R. Srinivasan (29), an advocate and a resident of Narayanan Street in Nungambakkam, posted photographs on Facebook, of his triumphant canine at a dog show in Coimbatore.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Another competitor, Krishna Ramanan from Madurai, who also took part in the show with his dog, lost the competition. In anger, he posted derogatory comments, including messages that said the animal didn’t deserve to win. Soon, a war of words broke out on Facebook,” said investigating officer, R. Shibu Kumar, inspector, Nungambakkam.
The online arguments went on for a few months. Meanwhile, Krishna sold two puppies to Mohanraj Subramanian, a resident of Kosapet Lane in Washermenpet, who soon turned his friend on Facebook and joined the online tussle.
Mohanraj started sending life-threatening emails to Srinivasan, apart from uploading derogatory Facebook posts aimed at him.
ADVERTISEMENT
Srinivasan lodged a complaint with the Nungambakkam police at the end of November, with copies of the threat emails and prints of screenshots of the Facebook posts.
A probe was carried out and a case was registered under Section 66 A (sending offensive messages through communication service) of the IT Act and Section 506 (i) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC against Krishna and Mohanraj.
A police team went to Madurai to apprehend Krishna but he went missing. Mohanraj was arrested in the city on Tuesday evening, remanded to custody and sent to Puzhal prison.