By: Express News Service
A 32-year-old bakery owner in Chennai has been arrested on the charge of outraging religious feelings, said the city police.
Prasanth, the owner of Jain Bakeries and Confectioneries, faced the action for a business advertisement that he circulated in WhatsApp groups in which he mentioned ‘Made by Jains on Order, No Muslim Staff’, the police said.
The case, suo moto registered by the police, said Prasanth’s advertisement was portraying Muslims in a bad light. His bakery business was based out of the house in T Nagar where he used to take orders via apps and bake items at home itself for deliveries.
The advertisement that invited police action was meant to circulate in social media groups targeting customers from Jain community in the locality.
What had led to police case and arrest was a strong protest by a section of customers who noticed the advertisement.
“Bakery owners claimed that there were discussions criticising the presence of certain community people in preparing food. They also claimed that they were forced to put out the advertisement to retain their customer base after reports of incidents in which some of the Jain businesses in the city had lost customers for the same reason,” said an officer who probed the case.
Police said they registered the case and arrested the owner on Saturday night under Sections 295A (Deliberate, malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion), and 504 (Whoever intentionally insults, and thereby gives provocation to any person, intending or knowing it to be likely that such provocation will cause him to break the public peace) of the Indian Penal Code.
This story first appeared on indianexpress.com