RAJGARH: A 21-year-old WhatsApp group admin is in jail since the last five months after an objectionable message was posted in the group by another member.
A 17-year-old boy from Rajgarh district in Madhya Pradesh allegedly posted an anti-national message on the WhatsApp group on February 14, Talen police station in-charge Narmada Prasad Dahima said today. Some people took strong objection to it and filed a police complaint.
"Acting on the complaint, police summoned the boy and the then group administrator, Raja Gurjar," Dahima said.
However, Raja Gurjar left the WhatsApp group soon after.
Two more members then became administrators as per the sequence of their membership, but they also quit the group subsequently.
"Finally, Junaid Mev became the group administrator as per the policy of the social media platform," a family member said.
On February 14, police registered a case against the boy who had posted the objectionable message and Junaid Mev under various sections of the Indian Penal Coded including 124A (sedition) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), and the Information Technology Act.
Both were subsequently taken into custody.
The 17-year-old boy was sent to a remand home but Junaid Mev is in jail since then.
Junaid Mev's brother Mohammad Fakhruddin alleged that he had suffered due to the police laxity in conducting a proper investigation.
Junaid Mev, a second-year B.Sc student who is also pursuing a course from the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), missed all his exams because of the alleged wrong confinement, he said.
Because was charged with sedition, Junaid Mev was unable to get bail even from the high court, Fakhruddin added.
Sarangpur's Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Prakash Mishra said the matter was pending in court and so far, nobody had complained to him about any wrong action by the police.
In case a complaint was filed in the matter, the police would probe it, he added.