Police detained nine people after pro-Pakistan slogans were displayed on signboards at two different shops in North Goa Tuesday night.
In a statement, Goa police said two incidents were reported in Baga and Arpora in North Goa, where LED boards of two shops – a hair cutting salon and a wine store – displayed slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. Police teams from Calangute and Anjuna police stations apprehended the people running the two shops and disconnected the LED Boards. Two FIRs have been registered, said police.
According to the FIR, lodged at Anjuna police station, police received information at 9.50 pm that five accused – Ranchit Bhatia, Vipin Pahuja, Vinay Chandra Rao, Krishna Lamani and Manoj Kumar – “intentionally” displayed…slogan ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ in scrolling text on LED board installed on their wine store…thereby “causing fear, anger and provocation among local citizens present at the site and alienation against the sovereignty and integrity of India, causing public disturbance and outrage among the general public by displaying seditious, anti-national messages through an electronic device connected to the internet”.
The second FIR states that at 10.18 pm, four accused – Mohd Farman, Noushad, Mohd Shavez and Rakesh Das – “hatched a criminal conspiracy” and intentionally displayed the slogan ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ on the LED display board installed outside their salon.
The FIR said the board was visible to the public through an electronic device connected to the internet…to “promote enmity and alienation against the sovereignty and integrity of India and also to cause public disturbance and outrage among the general public and display seditious, anti-national message thereby causing fear, anger and provocation among the local citizens present in the area and amounting to waging psychological and propaganda against the nation”.
Police have invoked sections 152 (acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India) read with 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of BNS 2023 and sections 66(C) and 66 (F) of Information Technology Act in the FIRs.
Police Wednesday said they were probing whether the acts had been intentional or someone had hacked into the systems. A police officer, requesting anonymity, said: “In questioning, all the detained people said they were not aware how the slogan suddenly came up on the boards”.
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“One shop owner claimed that the LED board outside his shop had not been operational for the last six months, while the other said his shop’s name was only displayed on the board till yesterday’s incident. The cyber-crime team is conducting the investigation,” the officer said.
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo called the incidents an “attempt to ignite communal tension”, saying someone possibly hacked the computer network and changed the scrolling text on the boards. “This is an attempt to cause a rift between people of two communities and someone is trying to take advantage of it. Our youth should not get misguided,” he said.
