A British citizen of Indian origin, earlier detained by Mumbai police for social media posts against BJP leaders, was stopped from leaving the country on Monday when he arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport to board a flight to the United Kingdom.
Police said a “downgraded” lookout circular (LOC) was in force against Sangram Patil, a doctor from the United Kingdom, seeking to prevent him from leaving the country while he faces a police investigation.
An official said: “The previous LOC against him was ‘stop and report’ when he was in the UK. After airport authorities detained him when he landed in the city, the LOC was downgraded to ‘stop and report’ when immigration officials cannot allow the person to leave. We were alerted about the same.”
The official said their investigation was ongoing and they suspect that apart from his own social media account, the “generic account” that originally posted the “objectionable and sexually explicit content against BJP leaders” was also run by him.
“We are conducting a technical investigation and during that time we do not want him to leave the country because we fear that he will not return to face the law. He can challenge it in court and we are ready with our response,” the official said.
When contacted, Patil said the police had earlier assured him that he would leave the country on Monday.
“The police detained me for 15 hours on January 10 when I was flying to Bombay. They said they would revoke the LOC issued against me after I appeared before them on January 16 and recorded my statement. Even on 16th January, they re-recorded my statement for almost 7-8 hours and assured me that I would be able to come out on 19th January. However, unfortunately today I found out that they had not removed the LOC and my wife and I had to return home from the airport,” he told The indian express.
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Alleging that the police are trying to harass him, Patil added: “Today I received a call again from the police asking me to appear before them on January 22 despite giving detailed statements twice for a one-sentence post I had posted. It is clear that ‘something is going on’ and they are trying to harass me. I am seeking advice on how to approach the court of law.”
On January 10, Patil, a native of Jalgaon, was returning to the country from the UK with his wife when he was detained at the airport due to a caution notice issued against him as per the FIR registered last month. He was taken to the police station and allowed to leave after a notice was issued for him to join the police investigation at a later date.
Patil is facing an FIR under section 353(2) of the BNS, which means statements containing false information that would create feelings of empathy and hatred between communities. The article carries a maximum sentence of three years. The content was blocked by the police after the registration of the FIR.
The FIR was registered based on the statement given by Nikhil Bhamre, who is involved in looking after the BJP’s social media accounts and online activity related to the party. In his statement before the New Mexico Police Station Joshi Marg, where the FIR was registered, he mentioned that on December 18 he found some content on Shehar Vikas Aghadi’s Facebook page that had been posted on December 14.
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He alleged that the publication mentioned objectionable things and misinformation about the BJP and its prominent leaders. The additional complaint mentioned that it also had objectionable content regarding a woman.
He further alleged that Patil had also published the post with the intention of creating misinformation.