Posts over Gen Bipin Rawat crash: States make 8 arrests; 2 booked

At least eight people have been arrested, two booked and one suspended from a government job, across the country, over social media posts on the death of General Bipin Rawat, his wife and other officers in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu. Action over the posts has been reported from Jammu and Kashmir, BJP-run Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, Congress-run Rajasthan, and from Tamil Nadu that has a DMK government.

The most arrests have taken place in Rajasthan — one in the hours following the crash and two on Saturday. The Pratapgarh police arrested Manish Kumar Meena, 28, and Jeevanlal Ninama, 25, on Saturday for allegedly posting “offensive” material on the crash. Pratapgarh SP Amrita Duhan said Meena had put up posts on Facebook. A police statement said the remarks by the two had “hurt public sentiments”.

Earlier, police in Rajasthan’s Tonk district arrested Jawaad Khan, 21, for alleged “inappropriate” remarks on Instagram about General Rawat. Police said they were alerted about the remarks on the night of December 8, hours after the aircraft had crashed.

“Khan has been arrested under Section 505 (2) (making statements with intent to cause public mischief, or alarm to public) and has been sent to judicial custody,” said Chandra Singh, Circle Officer, Tonk. The FIR was registered on a complaint filed by a police constable. It said Khan’s remarks promoted enmity between communities.

Two people have been arrested in Gujarat, the first on December 9 and another on Friday, the son of a retired police sub-inspector. The Bharuch Special Operations Group (SOG) team arrested Feroz Diwan Friday for alleged “objectionable” comments to a Facebook post on the crash. He later deleted the post. Diwan was released on bail on Saturday.

The FIR was registered by the Bharuch SOG. Officials said Diwan’s “objectionable” remarks had come to their notice and they finally caught him from Manubar village. Diwan is facing charges under IPC Sections 153 (giving provocation with an intention to cause riot), 153 (B) (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), 505 (1B) (intent to incite and create fear among the public) and Information Technology Act 84 (c) (punishment for an attempt to commit offence).