The Maharashtra Police on Thursday decided to drop charges against the two girls whose arrests over their Facebook post criticising the shutdown here during Bal Thackeray’s funeral sparked a national outrage.
In a relief to the girls, the dropping of charges came on a day when the Supreme Coourt said it was considering taking suo motu cognisance of recent incidents of arrest of people for offences under Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act which deals with online offensive content.
In a related case, a 19-year-old boy from neighbouring Thane district, detained on suspicion of posting an “objectionable” Facebook comment against MNS chief Raj Thackeray, was let off after police found that a “fake account” was used by some persons in the teenager’s name. “Sunil Vishwakarma is cooperating with us in the case and was allowed to go last night after initial questioning. He is nowhere involved in the case,” a senior police officer said.
“No charge-sheet will be filed in the case of arrest of two girls from Palghar. There will be a closure report,” Director General of Police Sanjeev Dayal said. The closure report in a case is usually filed by police before the court concerned when investigators conclude that no case is made out against the accused.