Associate professor of Delhi University’s Hindu College Ratan Lal was arrested on Friday night time over an objectionable social media publish relating to the claims a couple of ‘Shivling’ discovered contained in the Gyanvapi Masjid complicated in Varanasi, police mentioned. An FIR was lodged towards Lal final Tuesday after a grievance filed by a lawyer named Vineet Jindal. In his grievance, Jindal claimed that the alleged tweet on the ‘Shivling’ was “derogatory, inciting and provocative”.
Lal was arrested by the Cyber Police Station, North below sections 153A (selling enmity between totally different teams on grounds of faith, race, homeland, residence, language, and so forth., and doing acts prejudicial to upkeep of concord) and 295A (deliberate act to outrage non secular emotions of any class by insulting its faith).
Advocate of Ratan Lal Mehmood Pracha mentioned that Lal’s arrest was a case of police overreach. “A false case was registered against him (Prof Ratan Lal). The FIR & complaint doesn’t mention one thing that can be termed as a cognizable offence. Despite that, arrests cannot be made u/s 153A & 295A IPC, police don’t have that power,” Pracha instructed reporters.
“This arrest is also a contempt of the judgement by the Supreme Court… & a violation of section 3 in the Scheduled Castes & the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act… we will prove his innocence. More protests should happen,” added Pracha.
In his defence, Lal had mentioned that being a historian, he was entitled to his views and he had used “very guarded language” in his publish. “In India, if you speak about anything, someone or the other’s sentiment will be hurt. So this is nothing new. I am a historian and have made several observations. As I wrote them down, I have used very guarded language in my post and still this. I will defend myself,” mentioned Lal.
Soon after his arrest, senior Congress chief Digvijaya Singh tweeted in help of Lal and mentioned that he was exercising his basic proper of free speech and expression. “I strongly condemn Prof Ratan Lal’s arrest. He has the Constitutional Right of opinion and expression,” he tweeted.
(With inputs from PTI)
Source: www.financialexpress.com”