YouTuber arrested in UP for posting objectionable tweets from SP media cell's Twitter handle
Lucknow (PTI): The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested a YouTuber for allegedly posting objectionable tweets from the Twitter handle of the Samajwadi Party's media cell, officials said on Sunday.
SP leaders, however, said the arrested man does not have any links with the party.
On November 23, journalist Manish Pandey registered a complaint at Hazratganj police station against an unidentified person running the SP media cell Twitter handle (@MediaCellSP), police said.
The complainant alleged that the SP media cell posted a tweet about the Gorakhnath mutt and he replied that it should refrain from making such posts as the mutt is the centre of devotion for crores of people, they said.
After this, the complainant said, "insulting and humiliating" tweets were posted from the Twitter handle against him.
In a tweet on November 20, the SP media cell had alleged that people from the mutt were involved in illegal mining. The tweet, however, did not name any mutt.
Additional Commissioner of Police, Hazratganj, Arvind Kumar Verma told PTI that prima facie Anil Yadav posted the tweets from the Twitter handle of the SP media cell.
A detailed probe into the matter is underway, he said.
Yadav, who runs a YouTube channel, was arrested on Friday, the police said.
An FIR was registered under sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 504 (intentional insult), 505 (publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report with intent to incite) and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the IT Act, the police said.
When contacted, SP leaders said Yadav is not connected to the party in any way.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, the SP media cell said, "Journalist Anil Yadav was exposing atrocities and injustice being faced by people under the BJP government through his YouTube channel."
Angered by this, the BJP government got him arrested "unconstitutionally", it charged.
"Anil Yadav should be immediately released and sent back home with honour," the SP media cell said.
The BJP government is "strangulating democracy and dishonouring the Constitution", it said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
