Anti-Modi comment: Police record Facebook user's statement

Devu Chodankar, 31-year-old Facebook user who was booked for uploading comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on the social networking site, Monday deposed before the Goa Police cyber cell.

Chodankar was accompanied by his lawyer, who accused the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) of victimizing the shipbuilding professional and stifling freedom of speech on the social media.

Chodankar was questioned by police for nearly an hour.

Speaking to reporters outside the cyber cell, Chodankar said: "I am being harassed. I wrote the post after the BJP inducted Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik. But after he was thrown out, I deleted my post."

Acting on a complaint filed by Atul Pai Kane, a former head of the Goa chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industries and also a BJP sympathiser, police had been gunning for Devu's arrest for over a month now.

Civil society protests, however, forced police to tone down their aggressive pursuit, even forcing Parrikar to admit that arrest in such a case was not necessary.