City police has directed a local Congress leader to delete a Facebook post in which he made public the cell number of Gujarat Agriculture Minister Babu Bokhiria.
According police, president of Porbandar Congress IT cell, Rajveer Bapodara, posted a message on his Facebook wall carrying the phone number of Bokhiria.
In the post, which had a satirical undertone, Bapodara asked farmers to call the minister to take guidance from him before beginning the sowing of crops during monsoon, sources in Porbandar Local Crime Branch (LCB) said today.
Soon Bokhiria was flooded with phone calls from all over the state, after which he filed an application with the police yesterday, stating that the slew of phone calls caused mental harassment to him.
Bokhiria, who also hails from Porbandar, urged police to take action against Bapodara for his Facebook post.
"After receiving Bokhiria's application, we called Bapodara yesterday and noted down his statement. Adhering to our instruction, he deleted the post from his Facebook page," inspector D V Basia of Porbandar LCB said.
The officer said police is now contacting those who called up Bokhiria and would let them go after recording their statements.
In his statement, Bapodara told the police that his intention was to make sure that farmers do not repent after sowing a crop which would fetch lower than expected MSP (minimum support price).
"Few months back, a farmer called Bokhiria and complained that he is not getting desired MSP for his groundnut crop. However, Bokhiria asked him whether he consulted him before sowing groundnut? The audio clip (of the conversation) went viral on social media," he said.
"Thus, picking up from what Bokhiria said, I urged farmers to first consult him, so that they sow only those crops which would fetch better MSP," Bapodara said, adding that he has deleted the post yesterday.
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