Odisha Police arrest 19-year-old for 'hate speech'

Bhubaneswar, Oct 13 (IANS) Odisha Police on Monday arrested a person who, along with other associates, was found engaged in promoting communal violence and religious hatred in a video doing rounds on social media platforms.

Based on the complaint lodged by one Radha Madhav Das on October 9, the accused, Arshad Ali,19, was nabbed by the Commissionerate Police from the Biridi Police Station area of Jagatsinghpur district on Sunday night.

Das, in his complaint, drew the attention of the Commissionerate Police towards a video published and circulated on a popular social media platform, Instagram, containing false, baseless, provocative, hate-speech content.

He also expressed the apprehension that the video might provoke communal violence as it promotes communal hatred by insulting Hindu sentiments and issuing violent threats.

“The illegal act of the persons in the video was live-streamed on social media, where four individuals were having a video chat with each other. Their video chat promoted hatred on the grounds of religion.

“It also insulted the religion or the religious beliefs. The said persons also promoted communal violence and were discussing the recent riot incident in Cuttack City,” informed the police in a statement on Monday.

The Commissionerate police further added that the video chat escalated the communal tension between the religious groups.

The accused Ali was arrested following the registration of a case (186/25) at the Bhubaneswar Cyber Crime and Economic Offences Police Station under various sections of the BNS and IT Act.

Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police Commissioner Suresh Dev Dutta Singh informed that the Commissionerate Police has intensified its drive against objectionable and provocative social media posts aimed at disturbing communal harmony.

“For the past week, we have been conducting a special campaign against hateful and inflammatory posts on social media.

“Over 500 such posts have been taken down, and several arrests have been made, resulting in positive outcomes. Many users who had unknowingly shared objectionable content have now become more cautious,” added the police Commissioner on Monday.

--IANS

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