Mumbai A 25-year-old Bandra man was arrested for posting a message on Twitter and threatening to recreate a ‘Udaipur-like’ incident in the city if anyone said anything wrong about Islam.
The accused also issued death threats to a Marathi TV channel anchor who had commented on former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s comments on Prophet Mohammed, said police officials.
Rizwan Taufiq Rehman Shaikh, a resident of the transit camp area in Bandra (west), owns two commercial transport vehicles and runs a small transport business. He already has three criminal cases of assault and a molestation case registered against him, a crime branch official said.
Shaikh has been arrested on the complaint of the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), which also monitors suspicious activities and keeps tabs on anti-national activities on social media.
Around a week ago, while monitoring activities related to the beheading of a tailor in Udaipur, allegedly triggered by Sharma’s comments, a CIU policeman came across Rizwan’s tweet.
The police further said that the user, while commenting on the post of a Marathi news channel anchor, had said, “What is your channel telling about Islam is wrong. Be careful, you all will be shot to dead.” He added, “If anyone says anything wrong about Islam and Muslims, he will be shot dead.”
The CIU officer then filed an FIR at the Azad Maidan police station and Shaikh was arrested from Bandra Reclamation area on Tuesday night. The crime branch produced Shaikh before a court on Wednesday and sought his custody by arguing that they want to probe if he had any links with any groups that intend to flare up communal tension.
Rizwan’s lawyer, advocate Ajay Upatati Dubey, however, refuted the allegations levelled against his client and said, “He was just making a request not to pass objectionable comments about Islam and was not threatening anyone.”
After hearing both the sides, the court remanded Shaikh to the crime branch’s custody till July 8.