Police today dropped all chargesagainst two girls from Palghar whose arrest over a Facebookpost criticising shutdown in Mumbai during Shiv Senachief Bal Thackeray's funeral last month had sparked anuproar.
A closure report was filed before a court in Palghartown in Thane district, dropping all charges against ShaheenDhada and Rinu Shrinivasan, both 21, a senior police officertold PTI.
In her Facebook post, Dhada had lamented the November18 shutdown due to Thackeray's funeral. Shrinivasan had'liked' the post.
Both were arrested by the police on November 19 on acomplaint lodged by a local Sena leader. They were producedbefore a court in Palghar, which granted them bail.
They were booked under IPC Sections 295 (A) deliberateand malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings orany class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs),505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred orill-will between classes) and also IT Act.
A closure report is usually filed in the court wheninvestigators conclude that no case is made out against theaccused.
On November 20, police arrested suspected Shiv Senaworkers who had damaged a hospital belonging to Dhada's uncleto protest the comment on the social networking site, thoughshe had removed the post and apologised that day itself.
Following the outrage, Maharashtra Government ordereda high-level inquiry into the arrest and later suspended twopolice officers, SP (Thane rural) Ravindra Sengaonkar andPalghar police station Senior Inspector Shrikant Pingle.
A bandh was observed in Palghar on November 28 on acall given by the Shiv Sena to protest against suspension ofthe two police officers.