By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Oct 15:
The Cyber Crime unit of Mumbai Police arrested a 26-year old man from Pune for allegedly making derogatory comments against Maharashtra’s Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi using several fake social media accounts on Wednesday.
The accused had opened the fake Face Book account in the name of Appa Kesar Javalgekar and he used to post objectionable messages against prominent personalities. The Mumbai police had registered an offence on 9 October 2020, after a Face Book account under the name of Appa Keasarjavlgekar abused Deshmukh and two other senior leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi.
The accused identified as Shrishal Sharanappa Khajje, is a science graduate who works at the accounting department of a private company in Chikhali. He was allegedly operating several fake accounts. He was arrested from Chikhali area in Pune. He hails from Kesar Javadga village in Osmanabad district in Marathwada region. He is stated to be close to the workers of a political party rival to Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. He made derogatory remarks when his company was shut during lock down, the police said.
During the technical investigations, the police learned that the accused was in Navi Mumbai. However, further investigations led the police to Chikhali, from where the accused was arrested. When questioned, he admitted to posting abusive messages on Facebook.
He told cops that he made a fake profile and claimed to be a social media member of a political party, and posted abusive content. The police are checking if he is affiliated to any political party. He was booked under the sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Information Technology (IT) Act, and has been remanded to police custody.
It may be recalled that the Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had recently said that there were more than one lakh fake accounts created online just to defame the Mumbai Police and Deshmukh in the actor Sushant Singh Raj Rajput case. Later, the police started registering offences against those using such accounts.
