Youth held for spreading hate speech

Bhubaneswar: The police arrested a youth for spreading communal hatred through social media, a senior officer said on Monday. The cyber crime police arrested the accused, identified as Arshad Ali (19), on Sunday night in connection with a case registered on the basis of a written complaint lodged by an individual on October 9 this year.

In his written report to the police, the complainant alleged that one video was uploaded and circulated on social media containing false, baseless, provocative, hate-speech content, and the said posting may provoke violence, and it is promoting communal hatred while insulting Hindu sentiments and issuing violent threats.

The illegal act of the persons in the video was live-streamed on social media, where four individuals were having a video chat with each other, the complaint alleged. Their video chat promoted hatred on the grounds of religion. It also insulted the religion or the religious beliefs. The said persons also promoted communal violence and were discussing the recent violence in Cuttack, police said.