“The bloody Indian Army unleashed attack on Pakistan….You are finished…..The only mistake I did was that I was born in India. I am sad about that. Let my Muslim brothers go to the heaven.”
This was the screenshot of a Facebook post that made its rounds on social media, a post that was purportedly written by a Thiruvananthapuram native Shahul Hameed.
Thiruvananthapuram Vizhinjam police took Shahul into custody after a complaint was registered by a man named Pradeep Kumar alleging that the post was anti-national. Shahul meanwhile denied that he ever wrote the post and that the screenshot was fake.
Vizhinjam police told The News Minute that the details had been forwarded to the cyber cell and if it was proved that the post was written by Shahul, cases of sedition under IPC 124 A and under Section 66 of the IT Act would be filed against him.
“He was set free after questioning. We will register arrest only after confirmation on charges. The content was found seditious. We just have to find out whether it was written by Shahul,” Vizhinjam Sub Inspector Renjith told The News Minute.
Shahul said the screen shot was a fabricated one.
“I will live and die for my India. I am an Indian. I have never said or wrote those words. You can see at that same time I had written another one post. That proves that somebody was behind this. Whoever did this, he will be brought to the law,” he wrote on his Facebook page and shared a screenshot of a post by him at almost the same time that the alleged ‘seditious’ post was uploaded.
As per the screen shot, the controversial status message was posted on September 29 at 10.17 am, but news reports say that the information about India’s surgical attack across the Line of Control was out only at 12 pm on that day.
This was also used as a defense by Shahul and his friends.
Shahula also filed a complaint at the Nemom police station alleging a conspiracy against him. “Apart from proving my innocence, it is also necessary to find the person behind the heinous crime,” he said.
He also alleged that right wing groups were behind these allegations against him.