UK-based doctor and YouTuber Sangram Patil, who is facing an FIR for alleged objectionable social media posts against BJP leaders, on Tuesday filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court against the Vigilance Circular (LOC) issued against him by the Mumbai Police.
According to the LOC, Patil was first detained by the police on January 10 at the Bombay international airport and later You are not allowed to leave for the United Kingdom. on January 19.
Further, Patil appeared before the Mumbai Police in connection with the investigation on Wednesday and recorded his statement.
Patil said, “Though I was summoned on Thursday, I requested my statement to be recorded on Wednesday. They questioned me about the device from which I uploaded the post and sought access to my social media accounts. Nowhere have I denied that the post was uploaded by me.”
He added, “One of the posts mentioned in the FIR was originally posted by a page called Shehar Vikas Aghadi. I don’t know who runs that page, but the person deleted the post. I approached the Bombay High Court seeking redress.”
An officer said the LOC was in place as when he appeared before them on January 15, he gave a written statement but was not willing to answer the questionnaire we had presented to him.
The officer said the police wrote to Facebook seeking details about who manages Shehar Vikas Aghadi’s account.
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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 FIR was registered based on the statement given by Nikhil Bhamre, who is involved in looking after the BJP’s social media accounts. 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.
He alleged that the publication mentioned objectionable things and misinformation about the BJP and its prominent leaders.
He further alleged that Patil had also published the post with the intention of creating misinformation.