Goa opposition slams arrest over fake Facebook post

Goa opposition parties on Thursday slammed the BJP-led government and police for arresting a 35-year-old man who on Wednesday wrongly posted in Facebook that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar -- being treated for cancer in the US -- is no more.

Speaking to IANS, Congress leader Girish Chodankar said that while the post uploaded by Kenneth Silveira on Facebook was "not right", arresting him was "purely over-reach" by the Crime Branch.

"This is nothing but intimidation. Silveira was not right in putting up that post. But in the absence of a regular medical bulletin on the health of the Chief Minister, there is bound to be speculation," Chodankar said.

The Congress leader said the arrest exposed the government's "dictatorial tendencies".

Silveira was arrested on Wednesday night under Section 505 of the Indian Penal Code (circulation of fake information to cause public alarm), a day after he uploaded a post on Facebook which read: "Just got news that Parrikar is no more."

In subsequent messages on his Facebook wall, Silveira accepted that his message was incorrect after other commentators on his wall informed him of the folly but he did not delete the fake message.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also condemned the arrested of Silveira.

"Last year, a 'sadhvi' at a public meeting in Goa had said that those who eat beef should be hung in public. The police did not arrest her. Here one Facebook message results in immediate arrest? This is downright unfair," said AAP's state General Secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar.

--IANS

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