A city Judicial Magistrate First Class(JMFC) court on Friday granted bail to Kenneth Silveira, who was arrested by Crime Branch of Goa for posting fake information about Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's “death” on Facebook .
He was released on a personal bond of ₹10,000.
In a related development, members of civil society staged a protest outside the Goa Police headquarters here on Friday morning condemning the arrest.
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Kenneth, 35, was arrested by the Police on Wednesday night, a day after he put a post on Facebook wall claiming Parrikar, who is currently undergoing treatment in the U.S., was “no more”.
A First Information Report was filed after a local BJP worker filed a complaint with the police, and he was arrested, with investigators claiming that he was not cooperating with the probe.
A few members of civil society staged a protest outside the state police headquarters accusing the police of trying to muzzle free speech. The Opposition parties have also criticised the police for arrest of Silveira, who incidentally had contested the 2017 by-poll in Panaji, where he had lost to Chief Minister Parrikar.
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Superintendent of Police Karthik Kashyap said that the investigation would continue.