Monday, May 20th 01:07 AM IST

Kerala probes FB comments against Cong leader who backs Kurien

Feb 25, 2013

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Police have registered a case under the IT Act on a complaint that ’abusive ‘ comments have been posted on Facebook against the state Mahila Congress chief for backing Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien in the Suryanelli gangrape case.

PJ Kurien. IBN Live.

PJ Kurien. IBN Live.

The case under Section 66 A of the IT Act had been registered based on a complaint by Mahila Congress chief Bindu Krishna that abusive comments along with her picture had been posted on the social media and investigation was on, a cyber cell official of the Kerala Police said here.

Investigation was progressing and so far no action had been initiated against anybody, the official said. When contacted, Krishna said she had submitted the complaint to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who forwarded it to the Cyber cell for investigation.

Krishna said she was only stating the party stand on Kurien issue, but the comments that appeared in the social media were “highly defamatory” with a view to “tarnishing” her image as a woman.

“As per the information available so far, the comments were posted from a fake ID and police were trying to trace their origin. Police are in contact with Facebook authorities,” Krishna told PTI here.

The comments were noticed on February 4 and by then itself more 140 people were found to have shared them, she said. Kurien was named by the Suryanelli victim as one of those who had sexually assaulted her in 1996. The Supreme Court had xonerated the Congress leader of the charges.

The victim recently wrote to her advocate seeking to explore the possibility of filing a review plea in the Supreme Court for a fresh probe against Kurien, triggering calls for his resignation.

Kurien has maintained that he had been cleared of the charges by the apex court.

PTI

Firstpost encourages open discussion and debate, but please adhere to the rules below, before posting. Comments that are found to be in violation of any one or more of the guidelines will be automatically deleted:

Personal attacks/name calling will not be tolerated. This applies to comments directed at the author, other commenters and other politicians/public figures

Please do not post comments that target a specific community, caste, nationality or religion.

While you do not have to use your real name, any commenters using any Firstpost writer's name will be deleted, and the commenter banned from participating in any future discussions.

Comments will be moderated for abusive and offensive language.

Please read our comments and moderation policy before posting