Aneesh Jasy, from Coimbatore who describes himself as an ‘ex-Muslim rationalist’, has been arrested by Tamil Nadu Police on December 29th, for posting supposedly anti-Islamic posts on Facebook. What can be known from Aneesh’s friend is that his arrest was done without a warrant while he was taken to the Police station asking for his presence concerning an inquiry about his colleague.
On December 29th, Aneesh who is a popular ‘rationalist’ among atheist groups in Tamil Nadu was arrested and taken to the Kuniyamuthur Police station. However, Aneesh’s friend has alleged that an FIR was made only after his arrest. At night, he was taken to the police station with a Police subjugate citing requirement of Aneesh’s statement concerning an inquiry about his colleague.
Sub-Inspector V Ganesh Kumar has stated that he was made aware of the ‘anti-Islamic’ posts by Aneesh insulting Islam, the Prophet and the Holy Quran. He confirmed that he has gone through the Facebook posts and copies of them have been attached in the FIR. According to a report by The News Minute, one of the posts included in the FIR is a meme saying ”people cry crocodile tears over a book that they insist is holy.” Featuring an ex-Muslim the meme says “he is ashamed when he reads the Hadith.” Another post on Aneesh’s profile can be seen him comparing prophet Mohammad to a self-styled Godwoman.
After assessing the posts, The rationalist has been charged under 295(a) [deliberate and malicious acts meant to outrage religious feelings], 153A(1)(c) [promoting enmity between different groups of religion, race place of birth etc.] and 505(2) [statement conducing to public mischief] by the Kuniyamuthur Police station.
Aneesh’s (unnamed) friend has raised serious questions over the intent and sequence of his enquiry followed by the arrest. He suspects the actions of conservative Muslims behind the arrest. It is important to note here that Aneesh has always been on the end of getting threatening criticism from orthodox Muslim handles over his social media accounts. “I don’t believe that the police themselves went looking for his posts and took it upon themselves to file a complaint. What Aneesh was doing was nothing new. People from various religious backgrounds have become atheists and written about the flaws of their previous faiths. Since Periyar’s time, this has been happening here. He was only criticising hypocrisy within the religion he had left.” He stated.
Aneesh, who now remains in the Coimbatore Central Jail was initially sent to the Perundurai sub-jail. A bail plea submitted by his friend was rejected on January, 05.