Barpeta man held for 'hate speech' from hacked FB account

GUWAHATI: Assam Police averted a communal flare-up in lower Assam's Sorbhog area in Barpeta district, around 145 km from here, on Sunday evening. A Facebook post by one Ahedul Ali triggered massive public outrage in the evening, with a mob vandalizing Ali's livestock shop in Sorbhog market and demanding that the police hand him over to them. However, an investigation with the help of the police department's cyber cell subsequently revealed that one Jyotish Nath had hacked into Ali's Facebook account to post the 'hate speech'.
Barpeta Police said, "It was a case of personal vendetta. Having some personal grudge against Ali, the accused hacked his Facebook account and posted slogans against Hinduism and pro-Pakistan slogans. Locals, believing Ali to have posted it, vandalized Ali's shop. But an investigation revealed that Ali doesn't even know how to use Facebook properly and his account had in fact been created by Nath earlier."

Both the accused and victim knew each other. After police picked up Nath, he confessed that he wanted to take revenge upon Ali as the latter had 'hurt his personal feelings' earlier.

"Nath was the one who had created Ali's Facebook account almost a year ago and he remembered the password. So he thought this would be the easiest way to take out his vendetta," police added.

With the publishing of the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) slated for June 30, Assam Police have been asked to keep an eagle eye on possible instances of rumour-mongering on social media platforms.

Additional DGP (special branch) Pallab Bhattacharya said, "Assam Police, in its ambitious plan of installing a cyberdome, is focused on cyber security in the state and stop all possible threats or rumour-mongering attempts on the internet, especially social media."

Fearing possible attempts to create unrest by miscreants following the publishing of the final draft of NRC, Assam Police have already sought 150 additional companies of security forces from the Centre. A part draft of the NRC with names of 1.9 crore applicants was released on December 31 last year, leaving out 1.39 crore applicants. As per the Supreme Court's direction, the NRC authority will release the final draft of the remaining applications on June 30.