2014 posts on Modi: Plaintiff backs off, engineer cleared

Panaji: Ten years on, a Panaji court has acquitted an engineer, Devu Chodankar, in a case involving his alleged social media posts on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the 2014 general elections.
The court said that the benefit of the doubt has to be given to Chodankar as the prosecution could not establish offences against him, partly due to the testimony of Atul Pai Kane, the complainant.
Kane, an industrialist and former Confederation of Indian Industry state president, had filed a complaint against Chodankar with the cybercrime police. He later said he did not wish to proceed with the case.
“No doubt Atul Pai Kane filed the complaint against the accused, but it is pertinent to mention that during the course of his evidence, Atul Pai Kane deposed before the court that he does not wish to proceed with the present matter and that he is deposing out of his own will without any undue influence or coercion,” said judicial magistrate first class, ‘F’ court, Panaji, Ankita Nagvenkar.
The court added, “Considering the evidence on record, I am of the view that the benefit of the doubt has to be given to the accused. The prosecution could not establish the offences as alleged against the accused due to the testimony of the complainant.”
Chodankar was charged with promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, and deliberate and malicious acts of insulting religious beliefs of a class of citizens and promoting hatred between different citizens on the grounds of religion, race, caste, and community.
The investigating officer, Rajesh Job, deposed that the then Superintendent of Police (cybercrime), Kartik Kashyap, had sent a letter to Facebook and the North Goa SP to provide call detail records, which were forwarded to the nodal officer of the mobile service provider.