FB arrest of young girls: inquiry indicts police officials

25 November, 2012

Consequent to an uproar in the media and meaningful political backing, an inquiry was instituted into the arrest of two young women for their comment on the Facebook regarding the shutdown of Mumbai on Shiv Sena chief's death. The inquiry report has concluded that invoking the charges on the comment was unjustified. The state government is going to drop charges against two girls from Palghar after the inquiry report.

THE INSPECTOR General of Police (Konkan) Sukhwinder Singh carried out the inquiry and submitted the report to Director General of Police Sanjeev Dayal on Friday, November 23. It has been suggested that a departmental/ administrative action be initiated against the errant officials who even changed the charges at the last moment of IPC Section 295(a) leading to arrest.

One may recall that the two young girls in their twenties, Shaheen Dhada and Reenu Srinivasan, were taken into custody after a Facebook post comment, “We should remember Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, the martyrs of India’s independence, instead of closing down the city due to the death of Thackeray.”

The local police acted promptly on complaint by a Shiv Sena member and began interrogating the girls by arresting them. Meanwhile, a mob led by party workers of Shiv Sena vandalized the clinic of Dhada’s uncle.

But what about the compensation to the wrongly indicted girls and vandalizers!