A 35-year-old journalist Ali Sohrab was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday allegedy for his 'hurtful' tweets on the Ayodhya verdict. He has been arrested under sections 295A, 295B, 66, 67 IT act and is being taken to Lucknow after securing his transit remand.
Sohrab had reportedly come to Delhi to visit his relatives and was arrested from their house at Nand Nagri in Delhi. “Today (Saturday), some policemen in civil clothes came to our house and started asking about him. There were around seven UP policemen and they arrested him, besides seizing his two laptops and a phone,” said his brother Sabre Alam to The Sunday Express.
The FIR was filed against him in Lucknow’s Hazratganj police station and was related to his tweets, the police said.
“The arrest was made by the Lucknow police team with help from their Ghaziabad counterparts. The team included an inspector, a sub-inspector and other constables. The accused was taken to Lucknow where further proceedings would take place,” said Prakash Kumar, Additional SP, Crime, Ghaziabad.
On October 20, a compaint was filed against him at Lucknow Cyber Crime police station for knowingly posting tweets, in which a particular religion is being disrespected, causing enmity between different religious groups, the police said.
Another complaint was lodged against Sohrab allegedly for an inflammatory tweet which was related to the murder of former Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha president Kamlesh Tiwari.
Twitter exploded post his arrest. #ReleaseAliSohrab started trending on Twitter. Head of AAP in Haryana Sudhir Yadav wrote that arresting a journalist because of his opinion is a threat to democracy.
