Mangalore, September 27: The Bunder cops have arrested a Bangalore-based techie for spreading offensive messages in social media and misinterpreting photographs of the Kudroli temple.
The arrested has been identified as Shyam Prasad Bhat(37), a native of Belthangady, who works for Hewlett Packard (HP) private limited in Bangalore.
A crew of cops from Mangalore arrested Bhat at Judicial Layout in Bangalore and brought him to Mangalore on Friday, sources said.
Bhat, who reportedly owes allegiance to Sangh Parivar, had indulged in spreading offensive messages through WhatsApp and Facebook.
He had apparently insulted Kudroli Sri Gokarnatheshwara Temple and its pioneer B Janardhan Poojary by misinterpreting a photo. A cordial Id- Milad meet was organised in an auditorium of the temple 2 years ago, the photos of this event was uploaded and described that they had desecrated the religious place…”
Based on a complaint filed by Temple treasurer Padmaraj, a case was booked under IPC Section 295 (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) in August this year.
The organizers had distributed pure vegetarian delicacies to the devotees. It was evident that Bhat deliberately tried to mislead the people with the help of a lie that non-vegetarian food was served in the temple.
The accused was traced with the help of the cyber crime department of the police, two months ago and was about to be arrested. Taking excuses by stating health issues, he went elusive from confinement. Meanwhile, he closed the Facebook account, changed his mobile number and residence as well, so that it was hard for his arrest.
Cops on tracing his new Facebook account the police began to chat with him pretending to be a female through another account. Shyama Prasad responded immediately, gave his new cell phone number and other information. Based on the information given by the accused, the Cops have arrested the accused, Said the Bunder Police.
