Scribe booked for 'cyber-terrorism' after social media post

Hisar (Hry): The Haryana police has booked a Hisar-based journalist for "cyber-terrorism" and "promoting enmity between classes" for one of his alleged social media posts.

The case was registered by the police against Rajesh Kundu, who runs a news portal, on Friday under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Act.

Opposition leaders, including Randeep Singh Surjewala, KumariSelja, Deepender Singh Hooda of the Congress and INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala, have condemned the registration of the case against Kundu. They have demanded that the case be immediately withdrawn.

Police said the journalist has been booked on charges of promoting enmity between different classes, assertions prejudicial to national integration and cyber-terrorism for one of his social media posts.

According to the FIR, in the social media post, Kundu had said Hisar would witness caste-based violence in a week and this will be a blueprint for an experiment in the state and then in the country.

The FIR was lodged on a complaint filed by a Hisar police official.

District police spokesperson Vikas stated in his complaint that inflammatory messages, which could incite the public, were allegedly sent to WhatsApp groups and over Facebook from Kundu's mobile phone number and this can have an impact on maintaining peace.

Therefore, a case should be registered against him, the complainant sought.

On the basis of the complaint, a case under sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the IPC and 66F (cyber-terrorism) of the IT Act was registered against the scribe here on April 9.

Kundu has been extensively covering the ongoing farmers' agitation against three new agriculture laws of the Centre.

The FIR triggered a strong reaction from Haryana journalists as well as opposition parties, who slammed the police move. The opposition leaders claimed that the case was lodged against Kundu because he was raising the farmers' voice through his social media handles.

"When the government could not break the ongoing farmer agitation, it lodged an FIR against journalist Rajesh Kundu, who has become a voice of the farmers. Neither this voice can be suppressed nor the farmer agitation," Surjewala said in a tweet.