FIR Against Facebook’s Ankhi Das : CG Police

The Chhattisgarh Police filed an FIR against Ankhi Das, Facebook’s Director, Public Policy, India, South and Central Asia, and two users of the social media platform for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, police said on Tuesday.

Police said the case was lodged late Monday night following a complaint by Raipur-based journalist Awesh Tiwari.

Along with Facebook’s Ankhi Das, other two who have been booked were identified as Ram Sahu from Mungeli of Chhattisgarh and Vivek Sinha of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, news agency PTI reported.

They have been booked under sections 295 (a) (deliberate and malicious acts that are intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs); 505 (1) (c) (with intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community); 506 (criminal intimidation); 500 (defamation) and (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the basis of a complaint filed by a Raipur-based journalist, Awesh Tiwari, on Monday.

The FIR was registered after Tiwari was named in a complaint registered by Delhi Police’s cyber cell on the basis of a charge levelled against him by Das on Sunday.

The Raipur-based journalist, in his complaint, said on August 16, he put up a post on his Facebook account related to an article published in the Wall Street Journal.

Tiwari in his complaint said, “Two Facebook users, with names Sahu and Sinha, jumped in to defend Das and commented on his (Tiwari’s) post that she (Das) is a Hindu and she is talking in the interest of the faith. Sahu allegedly posted derogatory and communally sensitive photographs and also threatened him.”