Facebook post on Kerala floods lands Mangaluru man in jail

Mangaluru: A Facebook post on Kerala floods landed a 33-year-old man in jail for six days.
“Bhakt: Entry of women… resulted in Kerala floods; Me: What caused floods in Parashurama’s creation Mangaluru?” was the post Ashraf M Salethur, who works in the SIM card division of BSNL in Mangaluru, had published in Kannada on August 19. Two days later, City Crime Bureau police picked up Salethur and kept him in detention.
He told TOI: “On August 21, I received a call from a person who spoke in Beary (a local dialect) and told me to come near the CCB police station in Bunder on the pretext of meeting me.When I reached there, police took me into custody and grilled me for three hours till 8pm. Later, they handed me over to police at Mangaluru North police station where I was forced to sit until midnight. They then stripped me and confined me to a dark room.”
While Muslims celebrated Eid (on August 22), Salethur alleged he was languishing in jail “only in only my underwear”.
Later on August 22 evening, he was produced before the magistrate who put him behind bars. Salethur had been booked under IPC Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and Section 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication). He was freed on August 28.
Salethur also alleged that police threatened him not to reveal his ordeal.
His lawyer Shivaprakash said it appeared that Salethur was innocent and his detention was “illegal”.
Left-wing and like-minded organisations have decided to approach the home minister and stage a protest, questioning the alleged “illegal detention and double standards” of police.
People in support of Salethur said though they drew police’s attention towards several posts with “similar” communal overtones, no action had been taken even in a single case. They intend to file a complaint against the officials with the home minister and the police top brass.