After finding out that the man, arrested in Saudi Arabia, has no criminal background, officials want him released
UDUPI: With efforts on to have Harish Bangera, who was arrested in Saudi Arabia for a ‘hate’ comment, released, Udupi district police have written a letter to Facebook to check from which IP number the second Facebook account in the name of Harish was created and the ‘objectionable’ comments posted. Meanwhile, the police have learnt that Harish has no criminal background in Kundapur, his hometown, before he moved to Saudi Arabia for work.
Harish Bangera, a 32-year-old man from Beejady village in Kundapur in Udupi district, is a trained air conditioner mechanic. He went to Saudi Arabia in March 2014 to join the Gulf Carton Factory in Dammam. He shared a video of a riot that was supposed to have taken place in Mangaluru, which he had received from someone in India on December 19. Subsequently, he felt that the video was unwarranted and deleted it from his account. In order to put an end to the controversy, he also posted a video apologising for his ‘unwarranted’ post. Further, he deactivated his Facebook account. The matter ended there.
However, on December 20, a miscreant created another account in his name and several of his photographs were posted in it. The next day, two ‘highly objectionable and blasphemous contents’ were also posted. Bangera said that he was unaware of these developments until his wife, Sumana, brought the matter to his notice. Before he could bring this up in front of the Saudi Arabian Police, the comments went viral. Engr Meshari A M Al-Jabr, general manager of Gulf Carton Factory dismissed Bangera and the Saudi Arabian police arrested him. His family members in Kundapur are still unaware of the charges against him.
“Once we receive the details, we shall send them to the Saudi Arabian police, so as to prove Harish’s innocence,” an official said.
