Nagpur court extends police custody of Sameet Thakkar till Nov 2 for tweets on Thackerays

Cracking down on Nagpur resident Sameet Thakkar on Friday, a court has extended his police custody till 2 November. Thakkar was arrested by the Mumbai police on 24 October for his 'objectionable' comments against Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and his son - Aaditya Thackeray on social media. They had first booked him for the same tweets on 2 July, based on several complaints.

Objectionable tweets against Aaditya Thackeray, Uddhav gets Nagpur resident booked

Sameet Thakkar's police custody extended

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Thakkar brought to court 'bound'

In a shocking visual, Thakkar was brought to court today, bound; with a black cloth covering his face. This has shocked netizens, including BJP MP Varun Gandhi who asked 'Is he a danger to the nation?', terming it 'against tenet of humanity'. Thakkar's brother - Rishi opined, "It's human rights' violation by police as my brother's hands were tied & face was covered with black cloth when he was brought to court today. They treating him the way hardcore terrorist is treated".

Open 'arrest raj' in Maharashtra; cops pick up Sameet Thakkar for tweeting on Uddhav & son

What did Thakkar tweet?

Thakkar, who has over 4.38 lakh followers on Twitter had referred to CM Uddhav Thackeray as 'Modern day Aurangazeb', while referring to Aaditya as 'Penguin beta’ in his tweets on June 1, 30 and July 30.  Several complaints were filed by citizens taking objection to Thakkar's tweets - calling it 'vulgar and obscene', as per reports. Reports state that the Police booked Thakkar are under sections 292 (obscene acts or words in public), 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code, and 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act. Several Twitterati lashed out at Thakkar, while many others have come out in support using #BabyPenguin, which has been trending on Twitter.

Challenging the FIR against him, Thakkar approached the Bombay High Court to seek cancellation of the FIR and avoid arrest - which ordered him to record his statement. Thakkar complied with the court's direction but then escaped the VP Road police station citing fear of arrest by the cyber cell. The court asked Thakkar to visit the police station again on October 16 which he didn't.  This led to his arrest on 24 October with him being in police custody till date.

Twitter user Sameet Thakkar held over remarks gets police custody till Oct 30