Nabha man flags FB posts with blasphemous content

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Nabha, September 12

The police have booked unidentified persons for creating a fake Facebook account with a local resident’s photo and posting blasphemous pictures purportedly depicting Guru Gobind Singh.

On the complaint of Manjit Singh, whose profile picture was used, the police registered a case on Tuesday evening under Sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 419 (cheating by personation) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the IPC and Sections 66 and 66-C of the Information Technology Act.

Sources said the fake profile was created last week under the name of “Chabba Chamar”, apparently to create a communal wedge on the eve of the Parkash Purb of Guru Granth Sahib.

As per the FIR, Manjit Singh, a Tempo driver, was at home on September 8 when he opened his Facebook page. “I saw a post by one Devinder Gill, whom I don’t know. It was from the ID of ‘Chabba Chamar’ and there were offensive messages about the 10th Guru,” reads the FIR registered at Nabha Sadar police station.

“I told the ID operator not to depict the Ramdassia community in a bad light by using the word ‘Chamar’ and also stop making fun of the Gurus,” he said. “On September 9, I was shocked to find that the ‘Chabba Chamar’ Facebook profile showed my pictures, which were stolen from my official account. He then threatened to defame me by putting more objectionable photos on the account and later added the same,” Manjit told the police.

“We are trying to identify the users of the account who posted these pictures,” said Jai Inder Randhawa, SHO, Nabha Sadar.

“People need to be careful while reacting to such posts as these are part of efforts by unruly elements to disturb peace in the state,” said Nabha DSP Devinder Attri.

Earlier on Tuesday, SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal had stated that blasphemous content on social media was hurting Sikh sentiments. He had mentioned that the “Chabba Chamar” account was being used to mock the Gurus.