Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police on Tuesday arrested the research scholar Abhijit Iyer Mitra on the basis of a complaint lodged against him in Saheed Nagar police station.
Informing this to the media, Bhubaneswar ACP (Zone-5) Kishore Ch. Mund said that the Saheed Nagar police had arrested Abhijit following interrogation in connection with the case number 432 registered on the basis of the complaint lodged by one Manoranjan Mohanty on September 20.
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Acting on the complaint, police had registered a case against Abhijit under Section 294 (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 500 (punishment for defamation) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC as well as Section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).
After his arrest, Abhijit was taken to the Capital Hospital for a medical check-up, following which he will be produced in the court, the ACP added.
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However, it is not clear whether Abhijit would be grilled by the investigating officers (IOs) of Konark Police Station and Arakhakuda Marine Police Station. As informed by the IG, Central Range, Soumendra Priyadarshi earlier in the day, the IOs of these two police stations will also grill Abhijit on the basis of a complaint lodged against him in their respective police stations.
Earlier in the day, the House Committee of the State Assembly had recorded the statement of Abhijit in a two-phase interrogation and asked him to appear in person again on November 2 and submit an affidavit. The committee, after going through the affidavit, will submit its report to the State Assembly for its next course of action.