Old City Resident Held At RGIA For Fanning Communal Flames With Hate Video In Dubai

Feb 27, 2021, 16:29 IST

Abu Faisal was booked in May 2020 for provocative videos on social media.

While still in Dubai, he released another similar video in June 2020

Cops on the look-out for the last 10-months; arrested him as soon as he arrived in Hyderabad, India on Friday, February 26th.

HYDERABAD: After 10 months of constant surveillance, sleuths of Hyderabad Central Crime Station (CCS) arrested Abu Faisal on charges of posting communal hate videos on the internet, soon after he landed at the RGIA, the city airport from Dubai on Friday, February 26th.

In May 2020, cybercrime police registered a suo motu case under IPC section 153 (A) - (promoting disharmony, enmity, or feelings of hatred between different groups) and other sections of the IT Act against Dubai based Abu Faisal, a former resident of Barkas in the Old City for allegedly making communally provocative statements on social media.

On Thursday, June 4th, 2020, he again released another similar video on social media. Subsequently, police issued a Look Out Circular (LOC) against Faisal. All the airports across the country were alerted about the re-entry of the accused.

On Friday, the officials of the Bureau of Immigration at RGI Airport detained him after he arrived from Dubai in an Emirates Airways flight based on the LOC pending on him. CCS police confirmed the detention of Abu Faisal while adding that the accused will be produced before the court for the due procedure.

In May 2020, the Bombay High Court passed an ex-parte interim order directing the state government to block a video clip uploaded on social media by Faisal immediately, observing that it was prima facie inflammatory.

A division bench of Justice RD Dhanuka and Justice Abhay Ahuja passed the order in a petition filed by one Imran Khan who had sought directions to the State and the police authorities to take preventive action under sections 149 (Police to prevent cognizable offenses), 151(Arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offenses), 110 (Security for good behavior from habitual offenders) of CRPC against Faisal for his 'incriminating hate speech video' on social media.

Khan also sought directions to permanently block Abu Faisal's access to social media platforms including YouTube, Google, and Facebook.

According to the petitioner, Abu Faisal alleged in the said video that the media has been directed to target Muslims and defame Islam under the garb of the Coronavirus pandemic. The petitioner also alleged that the video would create hatred between Hindus and Muslims.