Harsha Raj Gatty

StoryInfinity for Daijiworld

Mangaluru, Dec 2: Post CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and National Registry of Citizenship (NRC), the Mangaluru City Police (MCP) is mulling on issuing ‘Letter Rogatory’ to act against those suspects who are based abroad, but passed inciting messages of ‘communal hatred or violence’ that according to the MCP further flared the protest that took place during mid-December.

According to the Mangaluru City Police (MCP), over 40 social media handles including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp are under their radar for posting communally instigating messages both prior and after the protest – that has led to further unrest in the local community. It was in this backdrop of violation of Section 144 of Cr.PC on December 19th – which it had to request to the Karnataka government for the curtailment of ‘mobile internet’ in Dakshina Kannada district for 48 hours on the same night.

Mangaluru city police commissioner Dr P S Harsha

According to the Mangaluru city police commissioner Dr P S Harsha, the MCP is also in consultation with legal experts to bring people in foreign countries, who have equally created or shared communally instigating messages. “Besides lookout circulars, revocation of passports, we will also seek help from Interpol, we will also issue Letter Rogatory (LR) to foreign countries and seek their cooperation in investigation, since few of the messages are from the numbers of those based out of foreign nation,” he said.

According to an official, under Section 166 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), an investigating agency (officer) may raise an application to any competent Court to issue an LR to its foreign counterpart to provide judicial assistance in pursuing evidence (including electronic) or documents.

On being asked if he could name the countries where the suspects originated from, Harsha declined saying for ‘strategic reasons’ he could not share the same.

In connection with the December 19th incident that has claimed two lives, the MCP said that it has already arrested one Moideen Hameez – who was known as doctor.hameez – in his Instagram account for sharing provocative message and has been charged under IPC section 505(1)(c) (inciting to commit offence), IPC 114 (Abetment to offence), IPC 153A (promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and Section 124 A (sedition). “Along with Cyber Crime Police Station (CCPS) Mangaluru as the nodal agency – we are working along with a team of experts and very closely monitoring social media platforms and messages that lead to communal incitement, violence, and that were communally provocative in nature,” Mangaluru city police commissioner, Dr P S Harsha said.

According to the police officials, those social media accounts that circulated morphed videos, disinformation, hyper-text, screenshots and images that carry inflammatory messages have all been documented and saved by the CCPS - that according to police officials has run into several GB’s of computer memory. “Details of the individual or group admin handling the account have been identified through their mobile number and IP details. One has already been arrested and several notices have been issued to both individuals and admins of the groups,” Dr Harsha said.