A retired school principal was detained by the Assam Police in Cachar district on Tuesday for a social media comment suggesting a connection between Monday’s blast in Delhi and elections.
The detained person, the headmaster of a government school, allegedly commented on a Facebook post about the blast near the Red Fort in Delhi on Monday, saying, “Election is coming.”
Confirming the detention, Cachar ASP (Crime) Rajat Kumar Pal said the man had “tried to give a political angle” to the incident.
“Yesterday, there was a very big blast in Delhi, which is being investigated by various agencies. This is national news. Some people are trying to misuse and politicise this news, because of which divisions can be created among different communities. It can lead to an increase in the chances of communal incidents,” he said.
“Our social media cell was alerted that one person living in the Silchar area… made a comment on a social media post, which tried to give a political angle to this news. We have apprehended this person, and he is being questioned on his motivations behind making this post,” the ASP said.
This came hours after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced that the state government is ready to renew its social media crackdown, which it had conducted after the Pahalgam terror attack. At that time, around 97 people had been arrested for their social media posts.
“After the Pahalgam incident, and even yesterday (Monday), we saw one set of people either appreciating this incident or posting some emojis with a lot of joy. That means that these people support terrorists. We have been conducting background checks on these people since last night. And if required, we will arrest some people too… I have directed the DGP to check who these people are [and] where they are from. If they are from Assam, we have to arrest them,” he said on Tuesday.
