Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—Facing severe criticism about its poor handling of the situation arising from some radical Hindu groups targeting Muslims and mosques in the state in the third week of the last month, the Tripura police have begun shooting the messengers themselves.
The West Agartala Police have booked a criminal case against as many as 101 social media account holders on the grounds of posting news and statements as also videos “intended to cause harm to the reputation of the Tripura Police and the Government of Tripura” as part of a “conspiracy.”
Almost 99 percent of those booked are Muslims. Among them include some journalists, student activists, leaders from religious organizations, and scholars who had shared information regarding the anti-Muslim violence in Tripura.
The prominent Twitter accounts booked are @IndianMuslimss, @IAMCouncil, journalist @meerfaisal01, and @SharjeelUsmani. There are some Facebook and two Youtube accounts as well booked by the police.
The case pertains to the information shared before November 3, 2021, about the attacks on mosques and properties of Muslims.
The FIR has been filed suo moto by Tapan Chandra Das, a sub-inspector at the West Agartala Police Station. The FIR is based on URLs of the social media account holders provided by the Cyber Crime department of the state police.
Accused made a bid to “disrupt sovereignty and integrity of India”
The FIR No 0181/2021 filed against the social media account holders has levelled severe allegations of making a bid “to disrupt the sovereignty and integrity of the country.”
The police have invoked Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, based on this allegation against the accused persons. UAPA is a dreaded anti-terror law.
“It has been further found that some of these posts/statements are intended to disrupt the sovereignty and integrity of India and it amounts to Unlawful Activities as defined under the Unlawful Activities Act 1967,” the FIR says.
The FIR says that leaders from some religious organizations visited Tripura and briefed the media in a “distorted manner”.
“Their briefing has been used in some of the social media posts to create disharmony and hatred etc. among the communities,” the FIR goes on.
The police have described the circulation of “the false and fabricated statements” as “criminal conspiracy” between those who first posted the statements and others who subsequently shared and forwarded them.
The FIR describes those having addressed the media and given “distorted” briefings as “conspirators”.
Besides booking them under UAPA, the police have also booked them
under the Indian Penal Code include Sections 153-A and B (Promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.), 469 (committing forgery to harm the reputation of any party), 503 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke the breach of peace) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy).