Pankaj Punia, a local Congress leader in Haryana, has been arrested for his tweet allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Punia, also former secretary of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, was arrested by police in Karnal on Wednesday night after a complaint was filed against him by a local at the Madhuban police station.
“Pankaj Punia was arrested from Madhuban area,” Station House Officer, Madhuban police station, Inspector Tarsem Chand said.
He said that Punia has been booked IPC sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295 A (outraging religious feelings), 505-2 (public mischief), and Section 67 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008.
The complainant said that Punia hurt religious feelings and promoted enmity between different groups on grounds of religion through his tweet.
“One person namely Pankaj Punia has posted provocative falsehoods to promote enmity between sections of society on ground of religion and his acts are prejudicial to maintenance of harmony,” the complainant said.
Punia had targeted the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh in his tweets wherein he had referred to the politics over party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s offer to run 1,000 buses to ferry stranded migrants back home. The tweet, however, was removed later by Punia following an outrage.
Meanwhile, a similar complaint has been filed against Punia by the Uttar Pradesh Police at the Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow for his alleged objectionable tweet against CM Adityanath.