However, the opposition Congress claimed that the detainee was a juvenile who is a student of class XI.
Senior party leader and Chhindwara MP Kamal Nath said the detention was akin to an "undeclared emergency" being clamped in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
However, police said the detainee was a 20-year-old man and not a minor.
"In Chief Minister's and External Affairs Minister's area Vidisha, police reaches to catch Class XI student, a minor," reads a tweet posted by Kamal Nath, also a former Union minister.
More From This Section
"He recently cleared class XII examination. The man forwarded an objectionable message regarding the deaths of five farmers to his WhatsApp group after getting it from someone. We picked him up for questioning after we got the link (of the message). We let him off within three hours after questioning him," the officer said.
The person, a resident of Khiria Kheda village under Purwai police station area of the district, was picked up around 6 pm on Sunday, he said, adding that further investigation is on.