Maha man held for Facebook post on eve of Ayodhya verdict

A 56-year-old man was arrested on Friday in Maharashtra's Dhule district for writing an objectionable post on the eve of Supreme Court's verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue, police said.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Saturday its verdict in the politically sensitive case of Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya.

Sanjay Rameshwar Sharma, a resident of Old Agra Road in Dhule, had posted a message in a regional language on his Facebook wall claiming he would celebrate Diwali after getting "justice" for Shri Ram Janmabhoomi, and stressed it would remove a "dark spot of history".

After police teams monitoring social media posts came upon Sharma's Facebook post, he was arrested under sections 153 (1) (B), 188 of IPC (commits any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities), an official said.

He will be produced in court on Saturday, he added.

Sharma reportedly has been arrested in two cases in the past three months, for allegedly beating up a man for befriending a girl from another community, and for assaulting two others.