PhD student arrested for objectionable comments against Maha CM Shinde

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Police arrested a PhD scholar for alleged objectionable comments on state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis. The cyber wing made the arrest of the 29-year-old student of a university in Ahmednagar on Sunday for his comments on Twitter, PTI reported.

An official informed that the cyber cell received a complaint on October 14 that an unidentified user was using a Twitter handle to post problematic comments against the ministers. Also, the accused user has been using the handle to abuse women and female journalists, he added.

According to the official, the accused used Wi-Fi-VPN (a virtual private network) to avoid legal and tried to create the impression that he was posting a comment from Mumbai. But the cyber wing found the accused was posting them from the Mahatma Phule Agricultural University at Rahuri in the state's Ahmednagar district after a technical analysis of his comments.

The official said that, after that, a cyber team visited Ahmednagar on Friday and conducted raids on some suspects. The team detained two and brought them to Mumbai to probe deep into the matter.

Further, the team arrested the main accused later from the university as well recovered two mobile phones and a laptop from him. The police also are conducting a probe into the possibility of some of the content posted by the accused being created by other persons abetting the crime, the official added.

According to him, the seized devices were sent to forensic experts to investigate if more people were involved in the alleged crime.

The arrestee was produced before a local court on Saturday and got remanded in police custody up to November 2, the official said.