Patriotic Sunny Salunkhe was shocked when his cellular service provider texted him a dirty joke involving the National Anthem.
Patriotic Sunny Salunkhe was shocked when his cellular service provider texted him a dirty joke involving the National Anthem.
The 26-year-old insurance agent lodged a police complaint yesterday. He said he did not find the insult to the anthem funny.
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| Activists of political parties at Idea offices in the city. Pics/Nikhil Ghorpade |
The Idea subscriber said while he was already irritated by the SMS joke feed that the service provider had started sending him without his having asked for it, the joke that used the Hindi word for 'stand' by way of a double entendre was the last straw.
Soon after the complaint, political parties staged demonstrations at a couple of Idea offices.
Salunkhe distanced himself from the political outfits and said he only did his duty as a citizen.
"I was hanging out with my friends near a restaurant around 1.30 pm on Monday when I saw this joke from Idea under its Hot Jokes service," said Salunkhe. "I was anyway irritated as I hadn't subscribed to this service and was getting unwanted messages. When I read the text message, I lost my cool because of the sheer disrespect shown to our National Anthem by the service provider."
In the SMS joke, a sexually unsatisfied woman one night starts singing the National Anthem, prompting her husband to ask her the reason behind it. The wife explains it is her last attempt at bringing him to a state where he can give her happiness as the National Anthem has the power to make the entire nation stand.
The SMS was sent from the number IZ 55456, said officials at the Deccan police station, where Salunkhe lodged his complaint.
"After taking down his complaint, we contacted the cellular company. They told us that they had given the franchise (for the joke service) to another company based in Bangalore called One Mobile Global Limited," said Senior Police Inspector Kashinath Umbarje of the Deccan police station. "This company was responsible for sending the SMS."
Tracing the culprit
He added that they were trying to trace the person who had made up this message and the cellular company was co-operating with him on this aspect.
"The case has been lodged under Sections 67 (A) and 66 (A) of the amended IT Act 2000. One of the two is a cognisable offence, for transmitting obscene text messages, and has a maximum sentence of five years in jail and fine up to Rs 1 lakh," said Umbarje.
A police team will either be sent to Bangalore to track down the culprit or help would be sought from the police there, said the officer.
After Salunkhe approached the police, word spread and political parties jumped in to protest the incident and vie with each other to declare Salunkhe as a worker of their party who had helped safeguard the honour of National Anthem.
Around 100 people from different parties created a ruckus at the Idea office in Erandwane, demanding an apology from the company. Another Idea office in the vicinity suffered minor damage as political workers barged into it.
Irked by the barrage of political activists trying to hog the limelight, Salunkhe made an official statement to the press that he was not a member of any political party.
