Man held for objectionable Facebook post on Saharanpur riots

DEHRADUN: A 36-year-old man was arrested by the Uttarakhand police in Udham Singh Nagar district for allegedly posting an inflammatory picture and comments about the Saharanpur riots on Facebook from a fake ID.
Lalit Kholia was arrested on Monday evening after he had reportedly posted and tagged 84 friends in a photograph targeting a particular community.
A senior police official said the image and the comments were related to the communal clashes at Saharanpur which left three dead and over 24 injured.Additional SP TD Vela told TOI, “Some members of the other community spotted the post and one of them, Iqbal Ahmed, made a police complaint after which a case under relevant sections of the IPC and the IT Act was registered against the accused.”
The community members demanded the arrest of the accused and immediate removal of the objectionable content from the social media site. On investigation, a police team found that the post was made by one Siddarth Manya. However, the ID was fake. “The IP address was traced and it was found that the post was made by Moodh area resident Lalit Kholia,” said CO Khatima RP Dimri.

Keeping in mind the exigencies of the situation, as Eid was scheduled on Tuesday, a police team arrested the accused within an hour of the complaint.
“We are probing the matter and trying to collect details on why he posted the objectionable image and comments,” added the police official.
On Tuesday, Kholia was produced in a local court, which sent him to the district jail.

Muslims offering prayers on the occasion of Eid-al-Fitr in Saharanpur on July 29, 2014. (PTI photo)
Meanwhile, police have stepped up security measures here to ensure that no untoward incident is reported on Eid. Police barriers and check points have been set up at eight important locations of the state capital. Dehradun SSP Ajay Rautela said barriers have been put up at Bindal Chowk, Ghantaghar, Ballupur, Kishnagar, Morowala, Turner Road, Subhash Nagar and Dharampur. Traffic was also diverted on several city routes to prevent jams, he added.