The case of the Palghar girls arrested for an innocuous facebook comment made the scope for misuse of Section 66A of the IT Act clear. However, even before this case, a similar, albeit more complex, story was already playing out in Mumbai. This time the victims were Mayank Sharma and his colleague KV Jagannath Rao. Both were employees of Air India and were arrested in May 2012 for their posts on a closed facebook group meant for Air India cabin crew where they allegedly distorted the Congress party’s election flag and joked about politicians in an attempt to express their angst against the state of politics in the country.
At 1:30 am on May 11, 2012, police from the cyber security police station in Bandra Kurla Complex showed up at the homes of both men and took them into police custody. When asked what charges they were being held under, no response was given by the arresting officers. At the police station, they were informed that they were being charged under the IT Act for the facebook updates they’d posted, Section 506(2) of the IPC (Criminal Intimidation) and for disrespecting the National flag.
