Opposition politicians could have been using by proxy the Facebook account of Devu Chodankar, who faces arrest for uploading posts critical of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi, the BJP said Sunday.
Addressing a press conference here, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Pramod Sawant said police in Congress-ruled Maharashtra also carried out custodial interrogation of Facebook users who had posted controversial remarks.
"People who are opposing Chodankar's arrest now are worried because custodial inquiry may reveal who really could have been uploading posts from his account. Chodankar was in Mumbai and it could be that these same people could have been using his account to make these posts," Sawant said.
The urgency to arrest the 31-year-old Chodankar, a shipbuilding professional based in Mumbai, has triggered an uproar on the social media as well as among the civil society, which has alleged a witch hunt against the Facebook user.
People staged a protest outside the police headquarters demanding charges be dropped against Chodankar, who police claim has already skipped two summons.
After the Congress accused Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar of harassing Chodankar to "please" Modi, Parrikar himself clarified that the government has nothing to do with the action against the man.
Sawant claimed custodial interrogation in such matters was commonplace.
"We have several references, where in Congress-ruled Maharashtra, police sought custodial interrogation of those who made controversial comments on Facebook," he said.
