Kin of Udupi man arrested in Saudi seek help

Udupi: Family members of a man, who was arrested in Saudi police for allegedly uploading a provocative post against Islam’s Holy Kaaba site in Mecca, met Udupi superintendent of police Nisha James and sought her assistance to get him released.

Harish Bangera hailing from Kundapur was arrested by the Saudi police on charges of posting defamatory statements against the Saudi King and Mecca, the holy pilgrim centre of Muslims, on Facebook.

Speaking with this regard Harish’s wife, Sumana said that her husband has not committed any mistake. “Miscreants uploaded derogatory posts, which landed him in deep trouble,” she added.

She further said, “On December 19 screenshots of Harish Facebook page with a video related to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act were forwarded to a few Muslim groups in Mangaluru. When I questioned him about the post, he said that the post had landed him in trouble and he received threat calls. Later, he deleted the post after issuing an apology and deactivated his account.”

Sumana further claimed that Sumana after Harish deactivated his account some miscreants created a fake Facebook account in Bangera’s name and posted defamatory messages against the Saudi King and Mecca on the page.

Bangera’s wife has filed a complaint to CEN (Cyber Crime, Economic Offices and Narcotics) police station at Udupi against the fake FB account on December 21.