Police in Tripura have slapped as many as 102 social media handles with charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The Tripura police has also served notices to social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, asking them to block the 102 accounts that have been slapped with UAPA charges.
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The police have also sought detailed information about the users of these accounts from the social media platform authorities.
These 102 social media handles have been booked under UAPA for allegedly sharing “objectionable news items/ statements” in regards to the recent communal violence in the state.
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“Some persons/organizations are publishing/posting distorted and objectionable news items/statements in Twitter regarding the recent clash and alleged attack upon mosques of Muslim communities in the state. In publishing these news items/ posts, the persons/organizations have been found using photographs/videos of some other incidents, fabricated statements/commentary for promoting enmity between religious groups/communities in presence of a criminal conspiracy,” police said in their notice to Twitter.
Similar notices were also sent to Facebook and YouTube.
The 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).
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The development comes just days after the Tripura police booked four Supreme Court lawyers under UAPA charges.
The lawyers had claimed that the violence in Tripura “targeted the Muslim community” in the state.
The group of lawyers also accused the BJP-led Tripura government for not being proactive enough and take appropriate steps and prevent the violence from breaking out.
“Four days before this incident, Muslim organisation Jamaat-E-Ulema (Hind) met Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Dev and informed him that such incidents could take place and there is a danger to the peace between Hindus and Muslims. Despite this, the government not taking any action is tantamount to sponsoring this violence,” the SC lawyers’ team had said in its report.