TNI Bureau: A Palghar court of Maharashtra has closed the case against the two girls, who were arrested for posting a comment on Facebook on the bandh after the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray on November 17th last year.

The Palghar sessions court yesterday accepted the police closure report seeking dropping of charges against the two girls.

However, complainant Bhushan Sankhe’s counsel yesterday said they will challenge the order and file a criminal revision appeal before the Palghar sessions court.

The girls – Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan, both 21 years of age, were arrested on November 19th last year after a complaint was filed against them by Sankhe, a member of Palghar unit of Shiv Sena.

It is to be noted that the girls’ arrest had sparked a nationwide outrage which embarrassed the Maharashtra government.

Following the uproar, two police officers were suspended in connection with the case, while the magistrate at Palghar was transferred.

Later the union government had issued new guidelines to stop misuse of a particular section of the Information Technology Act.

Now the cases dealing with spreading messages of reported hatred by electronic medium will be decided by a senior police officer not below the rank of DCP in rural and urban areas.

Moreover, an IGP rank officer will have to give prior approval for registration of cases relating to the section 66(a) of IT Act in metro-Politian cities.