The Supreme Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain why a class 11 student was jailed for allegedly posting an "objectionable" post attributed to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan. The hearing will reportedly be on Friday.
Gulrez Khan, the student from Rampur, was granted bail today by a local court.
The 19-year-old student, who was booked under section 66-A (punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service) of the Information Technology Act, was arrested on Monday and sent to jail on Tuesday. He has also been charged with promoting religious enmity and with intending to breach the peace.
The content of the post is not known. But the UP minister said on Wednesday, "There was a comment from a boy on Facebook against me which caused problem to me as people started abusing me over phone and started getting flak on Facebook. These incidents will stop only after taking hard steps, his act was highly objectionable."
The Hindu reported that Khan was granted bail on two sureties of Rs. 20,000 each. The court also asked him to submit his passport and to cooperate in the investigation of the case.
The student's family member said that they are willing to apologise to Khan. "Police kept us in the dark. On Monday evening they raided our house and took away our son, saying that he had uploaded some objectionable post on the social networking site against Azam Khan. They also told us that he will be released only after being produced before the minister in Rampur," the student's father told TOI.