Mangalore, Aug 25: Social media has been used many times by anti-social elements in order to spread hatred and provoke communal riots in our country. Anti-social elements share provocative posts and pictures on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to incite violence. Now Mangalore police will book persons forwarding or sharing derogatory jokes, videos and morphed pictures on social media with a malicious intent under Section 505 of Indian Penal Code. It means if the person is found guilty under section 505, he might get punishment upto 6 years or fine or both.
The cops have decided to book people sharing hatred on social media through provocative posts, morphed pictures and derogatory jokes under Section 505 of the IPC to curb the crime. “We are in the process of charge-sheeting three persons in different cases that took place in April, where the accused spread rumours on social media platform in order to create tension in society,” Chandra Sekhar, city police commissioner was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

Police decided to take harsh steps after several police personnel received such hateful messages. The police also received information of violence and when they forwarded it to verify, it turned out to be hoax. “This will not happen anymore and anyone doing such mischievous thing will be arrested and booked under sections available under IPC 505. It is easy to retrieve any information sent by user these days by using technology,” warned the commissioner.

There have been few incident when police booked culprits under Section 505 of the IPC. In Madhya Pradesh, two youth were booked under same section for forwarding morphed images of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Section 505 of the IPC says whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report (b) with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the State or against the public tranquillity; or (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, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to six to three years or with fine, or with both.
There have been several incidents in last few years when communal harmony was disturbed due to provocative and derogatory posts on social media. The mob, that lynched Mohammad Akhlaq was also provoked by pictures of cow meat. There have been several videos of people beating people of other communities and faith. Such video sowed the seed of hatred in young minds which eventually cause damage to secular fabric of the country.