The Raipur Police have registered a case against Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director of Facebook for India, South and Central Asia, and two other users of the social media platform, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and intending to incite communal violence.
The case was registered on Monday night at the Kabir Nagar Police Station based on a complaint of Awesh Tiwari, a Raipur-based journalist, hours after the Delhi Police registered a case against him and others as Ms. Das on Sunday accused them of sending her offensive messages and threats .
Besides her, the police of the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh have charged Ram Sahu of Mungeli in Chhattisgarh and Vivek Sinha of Indore in Madhya Pradesh under Section 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs); Section 505(1)(c) (with intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community); Section 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation); Section 500 (Punishment for defamation); and Section 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
In his complaint, Mr. Tiwari said that after he shared a Facebook post referring to a recent The Wall Street Journal article on Sunday, users Ram Sahu and Vivek Sinha said Ms. Das was a Hindu and therefore speaking in their interest. Mr. Sahu allegedly posted a derogatory photograph intending to incite religious sentiments and threatened Mr. Tiwari.
The article, published on August 14, reported that Ms. Das opposed applying hate-speech rules to certain Hindu nationalist leaders, including Bharatiya Janata Party members as it could hurt the platform’s business prospects in India.
Both the Facebook users came to her defence asking if “she should instead support Naxalites like communist writers did, traitors of JNU [the Jawaharlal Nehru University] or politics appeasing to Muslims?” Mr. Tiwari’s complaint said.
After the post, he was receiving threatening calls, Mr. Tiwari claimed. “And the three of them together are spreading communal disharmony and defaming me which has posed a danger to my life. They are trying to create communal tension, defame me and obstruct the expression of independent thoughts,” he alleged.
