THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/KOCHI: The excise department on Saturday registered a case against the admins of Facebook secret group Glassile Nurayum Platile Curryum (GNPC), a fast-growing social media group.
The case was registered against founder-administrator of the group,
Ajith Kumar of Karakkamandapam and his wife Vinitha, who is also an admin, by
Thiruvananthapuram excise circle inspector T Anikumar based on the instructions of excise commissioner
Rishi Raj Singh. Probe is also on to track down 36 other admins of the group.
The case was registered under Section 55 H of Abkari Act for sharing posts that promoted consumption of alcohol. The Act deals with penalty for unlawful advertising.
The excise sleuths have been monitoring the posts shared in the group for the past few days after the excise commissioner received a private complaint in this regard. "We have also noticed that there were many pictures shared in the group in which alcohol was consumed in the presence of children, which could come under the purview of Juvenile Justice Act. There were also posts twisting sayings of Sri
Narayana Guru and pictures depicting liquor consumption on Christian tombs that could hurt religious sentiments. Since they do not come under our purview, we would be submitting a report in this regard before the cyber police," Anikumar said.
Meanwhile, GNPC's lawyer S Chandrashekaran Nair said that it was a secret group which itself disapproves the claim that the group is publicly promoting the use of alcohol. "Even if you search for the group on Facebook, you will not find it. There are, however, so many group and pages which are misusing the name of the official GNPC group and these are public groups. Action should be taken against such groups," said Nair.
Members of GNPC said that the action was part of a witch-hunt. "There was disagreement with the excise officials over conducting the anniversary event of the group. Even though we were only conducting a DJ party, excise sleuths had then alleged that we were the ones supplying alcohol. We changed the venue and peacefully conducted the party. Since then, some excise officials are having some issue with us," a member said on condition of anonymity.
Nair said that the admin has filed a complaint with the cyber cell and excise department about the fake groups. He said he had moved for anticipatory bail.
Representative image