Tripura police serves notices to 102 persons under UAPA

Tripura police on Saturday booked 102 social media account holders under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA criminal conspiracy and forgery charges and served notices to the authorities of Twitter Facebook and YouTube to freeze their accounts and inform all particulars of those persons to it a senior police official saidThis comes on the heels of Tripura Police registering a case against four Supreme Court lawyers under the stringent act and various sections of the IPC for allegedly promoting communal disharmony with their social media posts on the recent violence targeting Muslims a senior official said on FridayTripura police on Saturday served notices to the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco USA by the officerincharge of West Agartala police station asking its authority to freeze the accounts of the accused immediately for spreading objectionable news some personsorganization are publishingposting distorted and objectionable news itemsstatements in Twitter regarding the recent clash and alleged attack upon mosques of Muslilm communities in the stateAlso Read Mosque vandalised shops torched during VHP rally in Tripura PoliceIn publishing these news itemsposts the personsorganizations have been found using photographsvideos of some other incidents fabricated statementscommentary for promoting enmity between religious groups communities in presence of a criminal conspiracy The posts have potential to flare up communal tension in Tripura state between people of different religious communities which may result into communal riots the notice served to the authorities of Facebook Twitter and YouTube saidThe cases against the social media account holders were registered at the same West Agartala police station under IPC sections 153A promoting disharmony or feelings of enemity 153 B imputations assertions prejudicial to national integration 469 forgery 471 fraudulently or dishonestly using as genuine a forged document 503 threatening 504 intentional insult and section 120B criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code IPC and section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA he saidSimilar notices were sent to Facebook and YouTube authorities as well police said All the 102 persons against whom the notices were served were asked to appear before the police and clarify their position the official said The names of the persons who have been charged were not disclosed by police The superintendent of police of West Tripura district Manik Das had said that a group of Supreme Court lawyers visited Tripura on Tuesday last and after their visit it was noticed that several posts were made in social media expressing their discontent regarding recent communal incidentsPolice has registered a case and wants to know if the posts were made by them or those were fake posts he said The lawyers were alleged to have claimed that the Muslim community was targeted including women and a mosque was vandalised The team had demanded appropriate police action against the attackers those who spread rumours and officials who remained inactive during attacks that occurred in the aftermath of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh during Durga Puja this yearThe case against the four SC lawyers was registered at West Agartala police station on November 3 under various sections of IPC including 153 a and b related to promoting disharmony enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion race etc 469 504 120 b criminal conspiracy besides section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act If convicted under the tough UAPA an offender may face imprisonment up to seven yearsThe lawyers belong to different organisations including Lawyers for Democracy National Confederation of Human Rights Organization NCHRO and the PUCL Notices were served to Estesham Hashmi Supreme Court lawyer advocate Amit Srivastav coodinator of Lawyers for Democracy NCHRO national secretary Ansar Indori and PUCL member Mukesh Kumar In the notice to the lawyers the police had asked them to delete the social media posts and appear before the investigators by November 10A mosque was vandalised and two shops were set ablaze at Chamtilla during the October 26 Vishva Hindu Parishad rally which was called to protest against the communal violence in neighbouring Bangladesh Three houses and a few shops reportedly owned by Muslims were also ransacked in nearby Rowa Bazar the police said The state government had on October 29 alleged that a group from outside with vested interests had hatched a conspiracy against the administration to create unrest in Tripura and malign its image by uploading fake photographs of a burning mosque on social media after the October 26 incidentThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or 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