RSS Thinker Booked By Bengal Police For Allegedly Inciting Violence Through Social Media

Kolkata Police on Monday booked Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) thinker and Delhi University professor Rakesh Sinha for a social media post that it claimed was promoting communal disharmony and attempting to hurt a community’s religious feelings, Hindustan Times has reported.

An FIR has been registered against Sinha on the complaint of Manoj Kumar Singh, a shopowner in Kolkata. However, Sinha has denied having posted such material on social media and called this action a repressive tactic to silence him.

“I posted a picture with my mother offering prayers at the Mahakal temple in Ujjain on July 9, another of receiving an award from the President and one of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat releasing a book on Prime Minister. What is provocative about these?” Sinha was quoted by the daily as saying.

In a series of tweets, the political science professor has accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of using repressive tactics to silence him.

According to Sinha’s lawyer Brajesh Jha, the complaint is vague, has no annexure and the police have charged him with non-bailable sections. “We are moving court, seeking anticipatory bail,” Jha was quoted by the daily as saying.

Sinha is the fourth person to have been booked on charges of inciting violence in West Bengal through social media. The other three also belong to the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Communal violence erupted in parts of the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal earlier this month.