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Journalism of Courage
The Mumbai crime branch Monday arrested a local for allegedly posting defamatory content on his social media handle against Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. The accused, identified as Pradeep Bhalekar, a Malad resident, was arrested by crime branch (Unit XII) and produced before a local court that remanded him in police custody. Bhalekar has been known to be involved in filing several PILs in the past.
An officer from the Mumbai crime branch said an FIR was registered at the West Region cyber police station against Bhalekar Sunday, following his social media posts against the governor. The cyber police then took assistance from the local crime branch unit and CIU of the Mumbai crime branch to track down Bhalekar, he added.
The officer said that Bhalekar put up the posts following certain comments made by Koshiyari last month. Notably, at an event to name a chowk in Andheri, Koshiyari had said, “Mumbai will have no money if the Gujaratis and Rajasthanis were to leave.”
“There are several posts targeting the BJP and especially Narayan Rane on Bhalekar’s twitter handle,” the officer added.
Bhalekar has been charged under Section 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups) and Section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 of the IT Act.
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