After facing flak from all quarters over showing an unduehaste in the arrest of two girls from Mumbai for a Facebook post, theMaharashtra government on November 26 suspended superintendent of policeRavindra Sengaonkar and transferred judge Ramchandra Bagade.
Bagade, a judicial magistrate first class at Palghar, wastransferred from Palghar to Jalgao a week after he granted bail to the girls onthe surety of Rs 15, 000 after sending them to judicial custody. Superintendentof police Ravindra Sengaonkar and senior police inspector Shrikant Pingle fromThane rural, where the girls were summoned for questioning have been suspendedpending an inquiry from the department. Apart from that, a strong warningletter has been issued to additional superintendent of police (Thane rural)Sangram Nishandar.
The orders come after inspector general (Konkan) SukhwinderSingh submitted an inquiry report to the government on November 23, whichshowed that the arrests were unjustified.
Shaheen Dadha and Renu Srinivasan from Palghar, Maharashtrawere arrested on November 20 after Dadha questioned the Mumbai bandh, followingthe demise of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, on Facebook. Srinivasan wasarrested for liking and sharing the post. They were arrested under varioussections of the IPC such as 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious acts, intended tooutrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religiousbeliefs) and 505(2) IPC (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred orill-will between classes) and under section 66 A of the IT Act. All the chargesthough, have now been dropped.
The incident has led to the IT and Telecom Minister, KapilSibal hinting on making changes in the IT Act, 2008, so that it could not beabused in the future. Sibal has said that he will discuss with stake holders andwill ask to designate senior police officials without whose consent,detentions/arrests under section 66A of the IT Act will not be possible.However, he has refused to scrap the law altogether following complaints by thecivil society that the law stifled free speech.
Meanwhile, no action has been taken against Bhushan Sankhe,the Shiv Sena shakha pramukh who made the complaint against the girls.
The girls in an interview with a leading news channelexpressed happiness over the report and said that they will be back on thesocial networking site, Facebook soon. Dhada said that she had no regrets towhat she said as she expressed her opinion on the matter. Earlier, both thegirls had deleted their Facebook accounts and had vowed never to return to thesite again. They had also apologised to the Sena for the post.
The arrest has been criticised by all parts of the societyand have showed the disastrous consequences that a law, which has not beenproperly defined or debated, can have on society.
