Research student held for objectionable posts online against Maha CM Shinde and DyCM Fadnavis

Eknath Shinde. File pic

The Maharashtra cyber wing has arrested a 29-year-old PhD student of a university in Ahmednagar for allegedly posting objectionable comments against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on Twitter, an official said on Sunday.

The cyber cell had received a complaint on October 14 about an unidentified person using a particular Twitter handle to post the objectionable comments, he said.

The accused was also using the handle on the micro-blogging site to abuse women and female journalists, he said.

To avoid legal action, the accused was using Wi-Fi-VPN (virtual private network) and trying to create an impression that he was posting the content from Mumbai, the official said.

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The cyber wing conducted a technical analysis of the tweets and found the accused was posting them from the Mahatma Phule Agricultural University at Rahuri in the state's Ahmednagar district, he said.

Accordingly, a cyber team went to Ahmednagar on Friday and conducted raids on some suspects on Saturday, the official said.

The cyber team detained two suspects and brought them to Mumbai for further investigation into the matter.

The probe team later arrested the main accused in the case from the university, he said, adding that two mobile phones and a laptop were also seized.

The police also are conducting a probe into the possibility of some of the content posted by the accused being created by other persons abetting the crime, the official said.

The police have sent the seized gadgets to cyber forensic experts to investigate whether more persons were involved in creating the content of the tweets, he said.

After the arrest, the accused was on Saturday produced before a local court which remanded him in police custody till November 2, the official said.

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