Agencies
Bangalore, May 25: A 25-year-old Aam Admi Party activist from the coastal Karnataka town of Bhatkal has been arrested by police for allegedly circulating an MMS ridiculing Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi. Bhatkal falls under the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.
Waqas Barmawar, son of noted Bhatkal-based Nawaithi and Urdu poet Samiullah Barmawar, was apprehended along with four of his friends from an apartment in Bangalore by the city police's Central Crime Branch late on Saturday evening. The other four were released on Sunday afternoon after questioning but Waqas continues to be in police custody. Police sources said that he has been taken to Khanapur in Belgaum for questioning.
The MMS that Waqas has been arrested for circulating shows a corpse with Modi's face morphed on to it. The caption reads "Abki bar, antim sanskaar (This time around, there will be last rites)", a pun on BJP's popular election slogan "Abki bar Modi sarkar (This time around, there will be Modi's government)".
The image was allegedly doing the rounds on a few groups on chatting application WhatsApp, which are administered by the party. According to sources, this image was accidentally forwarded to a BJP supporter in Belgaum who complained to the police.
The arrest has triggered outrage among AAP activists in the state who claim that this was a political satire and Waqas' arrest is an affront to their freedom of speech. Party sources also claimed that another Muslim youth from Sirsi, 100 km from Bhatkal, was detained by police on Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Bhatkal unit of the party has decided to hold a demonstration before the police HQ in the town. Raghavendra Thane, who contested the general elections from Uttara Kannada on an AAP ticket, told HT, "We will hold State wide protests. This is an outrage. The BJP targeted us selectively during the campaigning. In Bhatkal, they consistently picked on Muslim members of our party. Now that Modi is in power, the police have also joined the BJP."
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