Twitter user Sameet Thakkar, who was arrested on October 24 for allegedly making objectionable comments against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray on social media, was sent to police custody till October 30 by a Nagpur court on Monday.
Nagpur's Sitabuldi Police had arrested Thakkar for allegedly posting derogatory remarks on social media. According to the police, Thakkar, a Nagpur resident, had tweeted objectionable posts about Thackerays and Energy Minister Nitin Raut on June 1, June 30 and July 1, where he had addressed Maharashtra's Chief Minister as ‘Aurangzeb’ and Aaditya (his) ‘Penguin beta’. When this post was seen by the complainant, a Mumbai-based advocate Dharmendra Mishra, who is also a legal consultant for Shiv Sena, he approached VP Road police station on July 13.
Accordingly, police had booked Thakkar under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for obscenity (Section 292), defamation (Section 500) and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act. According to the orders of the Bombay High Court, Thakkar was asked to be present on October 5 at VP Road police station. He appeared but soon left the police station giving an excuse of using the washroom.
During the hearing in the Bombay High Court on October 9, Thakkar said that he had escaped from the VP Road police station due to the fear of arrest by the cyber cell. The court then again had on October 16 asked Thakkar to visit the VP Road police station again to record his statement, but he did not appear in the police station.
A similar complaint was lodged at Nagpur's Sitabuldi police station, wherein he was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act. However, after the Bombay HC dismissed the petition of quashing the FIR, Thakkar was arrested on Saturday by Nagpur's Sitabuldi Police.
According to a report, Sameet Thakkar is a member of the BJP IT cell. Complainant Dharmendra Mishra had earlier told Mid-Day, "Thakkar is part of a hate brigade working with the IT cell of BJP and lives in Nagpur."
Thakkar has over 59,000 followers on Twitter which includes PM Modi, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal's office, BJP MPs Maneka Gandhi, Varun Gandhi, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga.
