The police on Thursday registered five cases and arrested four persons, including a Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) panchayat member, for posting threatening and communally charged messages and images on social media platforms following the awarding of the death penalty to 14 of the 15 convicts in the murder of BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivas.
Officials said that some of the threatening messages were aimed at Mavelikkara Additional District and Sessions Court-I Judge Sreedevi V.G. who delivered the verdict.
The arrested were identified as Nazeer Mon, 47, of Mannancherry in Alappuzha, Rafi B., 38, of Mangalapuram in Thiruvananthapuram, Navas Naina, 42, of Ponnad in Alappuzha, and Shajahan, 36, of Vandanam in Alappuzha. While the Alappuzha South police registered four cases, one case was registered by the Punnapra police. Naina represents Ambalakkadavu ward in Mannancherry grama panchayat. “The arrested posted messages on social media to incite violence, destroying communal harmony and creating political enmity,” said an official.
District Police Chief Chaitra Teresa John said that a special team has been constituted to investigate the cases.
The arrests come a day after the police beefed up security for the Judge. A six-member team led by a sub-inspector has been deployed for the judge’s security after threatening messages against her appeared on social media platforms.
The Mavelikara court on Tuesday awarded maximum punishment to the convicts belonging to the now proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political arm, the SDPI after observing that the BJP activist’s murder case fell under the category of rarest of rare cases.
