Haryana Cong leader arrested for 'objectionable' tweet, remanded in police custody

Haryana Congress leader Pankaj Punia was arrested from Karnal for allegedly "hurting religious feelings" through a social media post and was remanded in police custody for a day, an official said on Thursday.

A former secretary of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Punia was arrested late Wednesday night on a complaint by a Karnal resident to Madhuban police station.

In the compliant, he was accused of hurting "religious feelings" and promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion through his tweet, the official said.

"Pankaj Punia was arrested from Madhuban area," Madhuban police station SHO Tarsem Chand said.

He was on Thursday produced before a Karnal, which sent him to one-day police custody, he added.

A similar complaint against Punia, also an AICC member, was registered on Wednesday at Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh for his alleged objectionable tweet.

Chand said the Madhuban police station has booked Punia on charges committing various penal offences related to promoting enmity between different groups (S 153 A IPC), outraging religious feelings (S 295 A), committing public mischief (S 505-2), and Section 67 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008.

In his complaint, the complainant has alleged that "one person namely PankajPunia@INC has posted provocative falsehood to promote enmity between sections of society on ground of religion and his acts are prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony".

On Tuesday, Punia in his tweet, now removed, had targeted the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, referring to the alleged politics over plying of buses by the Congress for ferrying migrants.