Inter-religion marriage: SC asks UP Police to protect couple

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked Uttar Pradesh Police to provide security for three months to a couple belonging to different communities and facing threat to their lives as their marriage is not approved by the girl’s family. A bench of justices J S Kehar and C Nagappan said the SHO of Sirsaganj police station in Firozabad district will grant protection to the couple for three months and in the meantime, they will move the Allahabad High Court for proper remedies. The plea, filed through lawyer Savitri Pandey, said the 23-year-old boy and the woman, 26, belong to Hindu and Muslim religions respectively and they face threat to their lives as their marriage has not been approved by the girl’s family. An FIR, accusing the youth of kidnapping a minor girl, has already been lodged, it said, adding that initially, a plea seeking quashing of the FIR was filed in the high court. It was dismissed as withdrawn as the accused youth could not appear before the court on April 22, it said. Later, another petition was filed in the high court and it was dismissed on “technical ground” on April 29 as the accused youth did not file an accompanying application seeking recall of earlier order by which their previous plea was allowed to be withdrawn. “You go back to the High Court. File your recall application there. You are projecting things in a manner as if there is complete lawlessness in the state. There are 100 judges sitting there,” the bench said. Granting police protection, the apex court asked the high court to hear the fresh plea, to be filed by the couple, in the first week after the summer vacation. (PTI)

Maha govt warns of action against those misusing social media

MUMBAI: With objectionable posts on social networking sites trigging violence over the past week, the Maharashtra government is mulling action against not only those who upload them but also against those who “like” and forward them, state’s home minister R R Patil said on Monday. The move follows the killing of an information technology professional Mohsin Shaikh in Pune last Monday after derogatory pictures of warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji and Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray were uploaded by unknown people on Facebook.Activists of a little known radical group Hindu Rashtra Sena bludgeoned Shaikh to death as Pune was gripped by violence for two days. There was trouble again in Pune, Nashik and Kolhapur on Sunday night after posts with derogatory references to B R Ambedkar were uploaded on Facebook. Angry locals allegedly belonging to a political party vandalized state-run buses in these places. “Social media is used all over the world. It is used for good purposes but anti-social elements are using it for evil purposes as seen from recent incidents in Maharashtra,” Patil said. “Those who “like” and forward objectionable content are in a way siding with the culprits and in the next few days, you will see stringent action taken against them,” he said, adding, “People are reacting to the content on social media. It is seen that social media is being misused extensively. “No one can say that somebody else has misused his or her mobile as the responsibility is of the owner of the mobile,” he said. He also said the government would see if there was a need for a separate legislation to prevent such misuse of the social media. (PTI)

Over 12 cases of communal violence since LS polls ended: CPI-M

New Delhi: Over a dozen cases of communal violence have taken place since the Lok Sabha polls ended and “divisive” issues like abrogation of Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir were being raised by the NDA government, CPI(M) said today. While the people are expecting resolution of “acute problems like price rise, unemployment, agrarian distress and increasing crimes against women will be addressed, the BJP-led government seems more interested in raising issues which are divisive”, party General Secretary Prakash Karat told a press conference here. Observing that the talk of abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution by a minister has caused “serious apprehensions”, he said “this can only lead to more alienation amongst the people in Kashmir.” “Nothing should be done that will undermine the special status accorded to Jammu & Kashmir which is a solemn commitment to the people at the time of the state’s accession to the Indian Union,” the CPI(M) leader said. Since the end of the Lok Sabha elections, “there have been more than a dozen communal incidents across country”. (PTI)