A Class 11 student, who was arrested for posting an ‘objectionable’ comment attributed to State Minority Welfare Minister, Mohammad Azam Khan, expressed his gratitude to the Supreme Court for scrapping Section 66 A of the Information Technology Act. “I am very happy and grateful to the Supreme Court for scrapping it. I was under a lot of mental stress due to this. I wish that other Sections on me are also removed,’ the boy asserted while talking to reporters in Bareilly on Tuesday. ‘’I was very afraid of the three years jail term in the section, Vicky Khan said.
However, the Minister refused to comment on the SC ruling in lucknow. ‘’I have nothing to say on this matter,’’ the Samajwadi Party leader told reporters here on Tuesday afternoon. The Supreme Court had earlier issued a notice to the State government seeking an explanation on the circumstances leading to the arrest of the student from Bareilly. On Tuesday, the Apex court scrapped Section 66(A) of the IT Act, terming it as an infringement on free speech.
The student was sent to jail by a local court in Rampur last week after being booked under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act and under IPC Sections 153 A, 504 and 506 for the offence. These sections relate to promoting enmity between different groups, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace and criminal intimidation. An FIR in this case was lodged at Rampur’s Ganj Police Station by Khan’s media in-charge Fashat Ali for posting objectionable statement in the Facebook page of the Minister.
Meanwhile, Dalit writer Kanwal Bharti, who was also arrested by Rampur police for his Facebook post against Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Khan, also welcomed the Court decision. Bharati told media persons in Rampur that there would, however, be no respite for the boy as the case under other Sections of the IPC would continue against him. Bharti had posted a comment last year after IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal was suspended for ordering demolition of the wall of an under-construction Mosque in Gautam Budh Nagar. The Dalit writer had questioned as to why no action was taken when a 200-year-old madrasa was demolished in Rampur — the constituency of state Cabinet Minister Azam Khan. He had gone on to comment that it appeared that the Minister was above God in his area.
Meanwhile minority welfare minister Mohammad Azam Khan though refused to make any comment on the Supreme Court’s order to scrap Section 66A of the IT Act but has blamed the media for support the criminals. ‘Aap log aparadhiyon ki himayat kartey hain (you support criminals),’ he said while talking to reporters here on Tuesday. A 19 year old student was put behind the bars on the complaint of Azam Khan after the boy posted some objectionable statement in his Facebook page. Khan had justified the police action and even went to the extent of saying in the state assembly that the arrested youth age is 35 and not 19.