The Andhra Pradesh police in Guntur on Tuesday arrested a 42-year-old man, for allegedly posting objectionable content against women legislators in the state, on a Facebook page that was run by him.
Police said that the accused, identified as P Ramesh, who hails from Prakasam district, was comparing women MLAs in the state to sex workers and had even put up an objectionable post with a photo of six women MLAs on July 24.
Following this, a case was registered with the Thulluru police station in Amaravati, under various sections of the IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Speaking to reporters, Guntur rural Superintendent of Police, R Jayalakshmi, said that two teams had been formed and the help of the cyber wing of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) was also taken, to trace the address and location of the accused.
This is the second such arrest since the YSRCP government took charge of the state earlier this year. In June, the police apprehended a man for posting allegedly objectionable content about state Home Minister M Sucharitha on Facebook. The post about her was made from the account of one Ram Maharaj.
Police registered a case and identified the accused from his IP address. The man, a native of Visakhapatnam district, was then arrested.
It seems that the YSRCP is following in the footsteps of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government which had also arrested several people for posting allegedly objectionable content on social media. While YSRCP had objected to the arrests at the time, calling them politically motivated, it has not offered to comment on the present arrests.
Meanwhile, it was also reported that Home Minister M Sucharita and DGP Goutam Sawang have launched two toll-free numbers 112 and 181, besides a WhatsApp number 912121100, to enable citizens, especially women, to reach out to the police directly and file a complaint.