Teen's arrest for FB post: 'Azam Khan will forgive my son'

'My son did not write the post at all. He just shared it. Somebody else had written it.'

A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com speaks to the father of the TEENAGER who was arrested in UP for a Facebook post!

Last week, a Class 12 student from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested and sent to jail for a Facebook post about senior Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan.

The Bareilly police claimed the FB post was objectionable and capable of inciting violence. The teenager was arrested on a complaint filed by Fasahat Ali Khan Shanu, Azam Khan's public relations officer.

The boy was released on bail the next day by a local court after executing two bonds worth Rs 20,000 each.

The teenager was booked under the controversial Section 66A of the Information Technology Act.

"My son did not write the post at all," the boy's father told Rediff.com

"He just shared it. Somebody else had written it. My son is now at home."

"Azam Khan (left) is a big minister. I am sure he will forgive my son. I am sure he (Azam Khan) knows that he is only a child," the father said.

"I argued that the boy should not be booked under Section 66A," Shailendra Pradhan, the boy's lawyer, told Rediff.com, "and obtained bail."

"It is wrong. He did not write it, he only shared it," Pradhan said, adding, "Moreover, he is only a boy."

"We can move the high court for quashing the FIR (First Information Report)," the lawyer said. "We are waiting to see what happens in the Supreme Court."

"The Supreme Court has given the Uttar Pradesh government four weeks to reply on this arrest. The Supreme Court's view will have a bearing on this case," Pradhan added.

Lawyer Manali Singh moved an application in the Supreme Court on behalf of petitioner Shreya Singhal, challenging the Constitutional validity of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which allows the police to arrest people over 'offensive' material posted on the Internet.

Singhal moved the public interest litigation after two college girls were arrested in Palghar near Mumbai when they commented on Facebook about the shutdown in the city and Maharashtra the day Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray was cremated.