THANE: Thane police on Saturday arrested a 30-year-old man from Sangli for allegedly posting objectionable content regarding BJP union minister Narayan Rane, his sons Nilesh and Nitesh and Shiv Sena Kalyan MP Shrikant Shinde.
Identified as Praveen Pawar, he posted the content on a Facebook page titled Yuva Sena Maharashtra State which had a photo of Aditya Thackeray. He was booked under the provisions of the Information Technology Act.
According to the police, Shiv Sena’s Shinde faction Thane unit secretary Dattatray Gawas lodged a complaint regarding the Facebook book at Naupada police station stating that the post had hurt his sentiments. Taking cognisance of the complaint, Naupada police investigations showed that the Facebook content was posted by Praveen Pawar in Sangli’s Kadegaon following which a team was sent to arrest him. The police said Pawar is not a member of the Thackeray faction. Further investigations are on.
The arrest comes in the wake of a recent police controversy over violence in Kolhapur over WhatsApp status admiring Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The violence led to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Opposition leaders trading charges of law and order failure.
Rane’s son Nilesh had questioned NCP leader Jitendra Awhad statements that communal riots were being instigated to polarise voters. Nitesh had then accused NCP chief Sharad Pawar of supporting the minority community. On Friday, NCP working president Supriya Sule met Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and demanded an investigation into threats on Twitter aimed at her father.
