Goa: Professor booked for hurting religious feelings

A First Information Report has also been filed against the professor

Shilpa Singh, an assistant professor at a Goa law college, on Monday, was booked for hurting religious sentiments through a Facebook post, following a complaint by one Rajiv Jha, a resident of Ponda in South Goa.

A First Information Report has also been filed against Jha based on a complaint by Singh, who has in-turn alleged that Jha had criminally intimidated her and outraged her modesty, also via Facebook posts.

"The above noted accused person having a Facebook profile in the name of Shilpa Surendra Pratap Singh knowingly uploaded a post through the Facebook account in the public domain with deliberate and malicious intention outraged religious feelings of the complainant, thereby insulted religious belief, thus committed offence under section 295 A IPC," states the FIR against Singh filed at the Panaji town police station.

Last month, Jha had said in a complaint that Singh had hurt the religious feelings of Hindus and Muslims with her comment on Facebook related to the practice of wearing mangalsutras and burkhas respectively.

Singh had in turn filed a counter-complaint against Jha in which she had accused the latter complaint of intimidation, outraging her modesty, and also accusing him of inciting a lynch mob against her. Singh in a subsequent Facebook post said that her comments were a critique of the phenomenon of patriarchy.

"Both the complaints have been filed as FIR. Singh has been booked under section 295 (hurting religious sentiments) of the Indian Penal Code, while Jha has been booked under sections 504 (insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (outraging modesty) of the IPC," Superintendent of Police (North Goa) Utkarsh Prasoon said.