A 28-year-old labourer was arrested from Odisha for issuing threats to the Madhya Pradesh pro tem speaker Rameshwar Sharma for opposing a protest over the cartoon row in France.
“A native of Jharkhand, the accused Javed Akhtar had threatened on Facebook to kill the pro tem speaker. He works at a steel factory in Sambalpur, said Additional Director General of Police, Bhopal, Upendra Jain. He was arrested from Sambalpur by a team of Crime Branch and Cyber Cell of the MP police.
Akthar said he was irked over Sharma’s remarks against the protests held recently last week in Bhopal against French President Emmanuel Macron over a cartoon row.
The Assembly secretariat had sought security for the pro-tem speaker after he received threats on social media for opposing a recent protest against France, an official said.
Talking to Free Press Akhtar said that he thought the protests were justified and the speaker should not have made any negative remarks against it. Akhtar issued threats to Sharma on a social networking site. A complaint was filed with the crime branch as the threat was touted as a death threat.
He said the protests against France were organised in Bhopal and Rameshwar Sharma had opposed it. He also said that there were many others who abused Sharma on facebook and thus he too wrote bad stuff about him. Akhtar said he was unaware that his remark on social media platforms would land him into trouble. The accused has 2,000 friends in his friend list. Akhtar was arrested from his workplace in Sambalpur and brought to Bhopal.
