A man of Khariar town was arrested for uploading defamatory posts on Hindu goddesses on social media.
"Asif Raju was arrested on August 22 and was forwarded to court, following a complaint lodged by a few Hindu activists against him for making defamatory posts on Hinduism on Facebook," said the Khariar police.
Angry activists and members of different Hindu organisations called for shutdown of shops and Government institutions and held a rally on Wednesday protesting the postings by Asif. "The postings have hurt our religious sentiments as such offensive postings against any community or deity are not acceptable," they said.
Businessmen threw their weight behind the Bandh call and closed their shops while Government and non-Government offices, educational institutions, schools and colleges remained closed. Security arrangements were beefed up to avoid any unforeseen situation. A platoon of police force was deployed to keep vigil over the streets and public areas.
Former MLA Hitesh Bagartti, NAC Chairman Ujjwal Gupta, Sujit Patra, Surendra Sharma, Bunty Tandi, Vinod Agarwal, Pradeep Trivedi, Soumya Ranjan Singh, Sunil Kumar Nag, Akshay Nanda and Vikas Shukla among hundred others joined the rally.
Meanwhile, Sunni Hanfi Jamat of Khariar, in a Press statement, blamed the postings. “Jamaat is no way related to the issue; it is his personal matter and we condemn such actions that hurt religious sentiments of others," said the head of Sunni Hanfi Jamaat.