Rewind to 2012, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was in power. Two young girls, Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan from Palghar, were arrested after one of them put up a Facebook post asking why the city of Mumbai had to be shut down on the occasion of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s funeral. One of the girls said that it was fear and not respect that had prompted the shutdown.
The girls were arrested for “hurting religious sentiments” under section 295A of the IPC and section 66A of the IT Act. The court subsequently quashed the charges