Maharashtra cyber department officials arrested a Thane woman on Monday for allegedly posting derogatory comments about Amruta Fadnavis – wife of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis – on Facebook. The police have also seized a mobile phone used by the accused.
According to the police, the complainant is the president of Yuvti Morcha. On September 7, when she was surfing her Facebook account, she came across a profile of Ganesh Kapoor who had posted derogatory comments on the photograph of Amruta Fadnavis. The police were then informed after which a probe was initiated which revealed that the said Facebook profile was created from an IP address which belonged to a Thane-based woman. The probe also revealed that her original account was taken down by Facebook in November 2021 for making similar comments.
“In order to evade law enforcement and investigation agencies, the accused made a fake profile by the name Ganesh Kapoor and posted derogatory, objectionable comments on against Fadnavis. It appears that the accused had purposefully committed the crime and we are probing why she had made such comments against Fadnavis,” said a police officer.
“The accused was aware that Amruta Fadnavis holds a prestigious position in society and we are probing on who's instructions she got inspired to make derogatory comments knowing that this could create a law and order situation as both Devendra and Amruta Fadnavis have a large fan following,” the officer said.
The police have registered a case on charges of cheating by personation, forgery for purpose of cheating, forgery for purpose of harming reputation, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace, statements conducing to public mischief, word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman, punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form and punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource.
