The city police on Tuesday arrested a sub-editor of The Samaja here on charges of outraging and insulting the religious feelings of the Muslim community by printing an imaginary photograph of Prophet Muhammad.
“Basing on a written complaint filed by one Sayed Alam of the city, the police have arrested the journalist under Section 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 295-A (outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religious beliefs) and 501 (printing any defamatory matter) of IPC,” said DCP S Praveen Kumar here, adding that the accused has been forwarded to court.
The employee of the newspaper was earlier suspended by the management after a massive protest was staged in front of its office by the people of the community. The young journalist had apparently downloaded a picture from internet and pasted it in the paper with a snippet on the occasion of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.
The management of the newspaper, however, came out with a public apology profusely regretting for inadvertently hurting the sentiments of the Muslim brethren on this auspicious day.
It may be mentioned here that the city police way back in 2008 had arrested a writer for portraying the photo of Prophet Muhammad on the cover page of his book. As per Islam, photo worship in the religion is strictly prohibited and therefore no picture of the Prophet is available.