Ahmedabad, Jun 6 (PTI) Gujarat Congress general secretary Rajesh Soni was arrested on Friday and charged under a tough section of the BNS for allegedly uploading “misleading” as well as “morale breaking” content on a social media platform related to ‘Operation Sindoor’, police said.

After registration of an FIR on Thursday, the Cyber Crime Cell of the state CID arrested Soni in the wee hours over his controversial posts on the operation launched by Indian armed forces to destroy terror hubs in Pakistan and PoK, said Superintendent of Police (CID-Cyber Crime) Bharatsinh Tank.

During the May 7-10 operation, launched in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Indian armed forces also bombed airbases in Pakistan in retaliatory strikes.

Soni has been accused of breaking defence personnel’s morale and putting India’s sovereignty in danger through misleading posts on Facebook, said Tank.

The Congress leader has been booked under sections 152 (acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India) and 353(1)(a) (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), said the SP.

The section 353(1)(a) can also be invoked against someone who makes, publishes or circulates any statement, false information, rumour, or report, with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, any officer, soldier of India to mutiny or otherwise disregard or fail in his duty as such.

Punishment under BNS section 152 can range from life imprisonment to seven years, plus a fine.

The FIR lodged by the CID cited two Facebook posts of Soni, whose arrest was denounced by the opposition party.

In one of the posts, the Congress leader shared photos of posters of Operation Sindoor featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the uniform of a fighter jet pilot.

The post had a caption in Gujarati, which reads “Please note that soldiers will not get the credit. The cost of his publicity will be double than the cost of flying the Rafale in Operation Sindoor”.

In another post, Soni, despite knowing the facts, “tried to incite people by claiming that the Indian government had surrendered during the operation”, the FIR stated.

“We have arrested Soni for his posts which could break the armed forces’ morale and send a wrong message to soldiers that their contribution and sacrifice on the battlefield will go in vain,” said Tank, justifying the police action.

Gujarat Congress leaders rushed to the CID’s office in Gandhinagar upon learning about Soni’s arrest in the early hours of Friday.

Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil criticised the police action, saying his party colleague only tried to highlight that soldiers need to get their due credit instead of government spending taxpayers money on publicity.

“Rajeshbhai Soni was arrested by Cyber Crime at 4 am as if he is a terrorist. If we look at his posts, we can see that he only tried to convey the message that soldiers should get credit for their bravery and people’s money should not be used for publicity and political gains in the name of Sindoor operation,” he asserted. PTI PJT PD RSY