The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday wrote to Delhi Commissioner of Police Amulya Patnaik, protesting against the arrest of blogger Abhishek Mishra, who claims to be a Right to Information activist. The Delhi Police had arrested Mishra on Tuesday based on a complaint that he had hurt religious sentiments by putting up “inflammatory” posts on his website and social media, News18 reported.
The Madhya Pradesh Home Ministry wrote to the Delhi Police alleging that Mishra’s arrest was in contravention of Supreme Court guidelines. It said that an investigation should be ordered against the police officers who arrested him. “If any Madhya Pradesh citizen is arrested, the local police is required to be informed,” state Home Minister Bala Bachchan told reporters.
The blogger’s father Ashok Mishra claimed that unidentified persons forcibly took him away from his home in Bhopal at 8.30 pm on Tuesday. He said the family has been unable to contact Abhishek Mishra since then. An official from the Madhya Pradesh public relations department claimed that officers of the Delhi Police took Abhishek Mishra away without informing their counterparts in the state, PTI reported.
Amit Malviya, the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s information technology cell, claimed on Thursday that Abhishek Mishra is the chief of the Madhya Pradesh Congress’ IT cell. However, Abhay Tiwari, the chairperson of the state Congress’ social media and IT cell, mocked Malviya in a tweet, identifying himself as the head of the cell.
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