Police custody of Twitter user held over remarks extended

A court here on Friday extended the police custody of Twitter user Sameet Thakkar who was arrested last week for posting allegedly objectionable comments against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son and minister Aaditya Thackeray.

A court here on Friday extended the police custody of Twitter user Sameet Thakkar who was arrested last week for posting allegedly objectionable comments against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son and minister Aaditya Thackeray. Thakkar was produced before the court after his initial four-day remand ended, and the court extended his police custody till November 2, a police official said.

Thakkar, who has 59,000 followers on Twitter and is followed by some prominent government functionaries on the social media platform, was arrested from Rajkot on October 24 over posts on Twitter, including his `Baby Penguin' remark against Aaditya Thackeray. Detractors of Aaditya Thackeray have been taunting him with that sobriquet after he insisted on bringing penguins in the Mumbai zoo.

The municipal corporation, controlled by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, spent crores on the project that included the cost of creating an artificial environment for the flightless birds. At the time of the arrest, police had described Thakkar as a BJP functionary. However, BJP has categorically denied Thakkar being either a functionary or a member of the party's IT cell.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)