UP man held for posting Pak flag on FB

Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), Jan 4 A man has been arrested by the police for allegedly sharing a picture of the Pakistan flag on his Facebook account.

The FB post was picked up by some local right-wing activists, who protested against the accused.

An FIR has been registered against the accused under IPC sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious feelings) and 505-2 (statements conducing to public mischief) following a complaint by an activist.

The man, who belongs to a minority community and works at a saw machine workshop, said that his son had inadvertently uploaded the flag on his social media account and that he deleted the picture after realising that it was 'not right'.

SHO of Kunwargaon, Vinod Kumar, said, "The matter came to light following a police complaint.

"The flag had '14th August, Independence Day' written on it which was objectionable and it triggered protests by some locals in front of the police station.

"The cyber cell was alerted and the picture was deleted from the man's FB account. During questioning, the accused said that it was a mistake. Since the offence is cognizable, he was produced before a magistrate and was remanded in judicial custody," the SHO said.