A 14-year-old boy from Telangana was detained by the Cyberabad police on Tuesday, for allegedly insulting the national flag.
The boy, a native of Veerlapally village in Nandigama mandal, had allegedly uploaded a photo on his Facebook page, where he was seen tying his shoelaces, while placing his foot on the flag.
Following this, a villager who noticed the photo, complained to the police.
The Cyberabad police booked a case under 153(b) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the IPC and the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971. The boy was later produced before the juvenile justice board and sent to a juvenile home, the Deccan Chronicle reported.
Besides blocking his Facebook account, the police also recovered the mobile phone he used for uploading the controversial picture. The seized material was sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory, the DC report added.
According to reports, The detained boy was a Class 8 student, at a private school in Veerlapally.
Just last month, students from the ABVP, the BJP’s student wing, heckled the principal of a government junior college in Telangana for not removing his shoes while hoisting the national flag during Independence Day celebrations.
The incident occurred at Ailapur village in Telangana's Nizamabad district.
The students chanted slogans like 'Principal down, down!' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and escorted him out of the college premises, even as he tried to continue explaining that there was no rule that shoes had to be removed for flag hoisting.
According to reports, the Principal alleged that the ABVP students pulled him by the collar, abused him, and forced him to chant the same slogans of 'Jai Shree Ram'.
In August, the Hyderabad police arrested three Kashmiri students for not standing up for the national anthem, and booked them under Section 2 of the Prevention of Insult to National Anthem Honour Act.
The national anthem was played ahead of the movie in Cinepolis, Mantra Mall, as per the orders of the Supreme Court, for which the trio didn’t stand up, following which a complaint was lodged on behalf of the theatre management.
A similar incident occurred in March this year, at the Inox theatre in Kachiguda.
When two persons did not stand up for the national anthem, a journalist, who worked for a local Telugu TV channel, filed an oral complaint with the police.
A police party reportedly arrived at the mall within minutes, and took the duo into custody.