London-based doctor Sangram Patil, a person of Indian origin, was on Saturday detained at the Mumbai airport in connection with his allegedly derogatory social media posts about the Bharatiya Janata Party and its leaders, The Indian Express reported.
Patil, who is also a content creator, was later allowed to leave after he was given a notice under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita to join the investigation later.
The complaint, a member of the BJP, had alleged in December that the doctor had deliberately made allegedly defamatory and misleading posts about the Hindutva party and its leaders, according to Mumbai Tak.
The online posts could create feelings of enmity and hatred between groups, the complainant was quoted as having alleged.
A case had been registered against Patil by the cybercrime department under the Information Technology Act, Mumbai Tak reported. Following this, a lookout notice had been issued against him.
The lookout circular is used by law enforcement authorities to check whether a person entering or leaving the country is wanted by the police.
Patil’s YouTube channel has more than four lakh subscribers and 5.6 crore views, and his Facebook page has more than one lakh followers. His posts on the video platform and social media cover several topics, including political commentary. Some posts were critical of the Narendra Modi government.
Condemning the detention of Patil, Congress’ Maharashtra chief Harshwardhan Sapkal asked if democracy was still alive in India.
The condemnation of Patil’s detention “is not enough – it’s woefully inadequate”, Sapkal said on social media. “The arrest (sic) of Dr Sangram Patil, who takes bold political stances, is an international embarrassment for the country,” he added.
The Congress leader demanded that the Mumbai Police and the home ministry immediately clarify why Patil had been detained.
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