A local court has filed a charge sheet against Hassan Mohiuddin Siddiqi of Hyderabad, Telangana, who was arrested over a complaint that an obscene video was being circulated on social media with derogatory lables with the intention of defaming the “head of the government”.
An FIR in this regard was registered by the Chandigarh Police on April 19.
A city-based advocate alleged that author Madhu Kishwar and certain other social media users circulated forged and misleading posts and obscene video content with regard to head of the Government of India with the intention to damage his dignity and reputation.
The FIR has been registered under Sections 196, 356, 336(4), 353, 336(1), 336(3), 340 and 318 of the BNS-2023 and under Sections 66-C, 66D, 67 of Information and Technology Act, 2000.
These sections were invoked for allegedly promoting enmity between groups, forgery and criminal defamation.
It was alleged in the FIR that the accused circulated the video on various social media handles, including X.
The allegation against Hassan is that he circulated and disseminated misleading and scandalous information, in criminal conspiracy with others, through his X account.
During the course of investigation, accused was arrested on April 25. The Chandigarh court had earlier dismissed anticipatory bail of prominent writer Madhu Kishwar in the same case. Further allegations are that the act of accused had serious tendency to promote disharmony between religious/regional groups and between different castes/communities and to cause public mischief. The police alleged that the accused also did some digital manipulations, satisfying the ingredients of forgery.
