Good sense prevails, Mumbai Police to drop FIR against AIB By Vijay Kumar Yadav | Mumbai

Following backlash, Mumbai Police have decided to file a C Summary report in relation to AIB's Narendra Modi meme, which is for cases where a complaint has been filed 'due to mistake of facts'



Comedy group AIB circulated the meme across social media platforms

The Mumbai Police seem to have realised their mistake in rushing to act against comedy group AIB for the now infamous meme on Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Snapchat 'dog filter'. mid-day has learnt from the top brass that the Cyber police are most likely to file a C Summary in court that will nullify the FIR.



The case against AIB will be nullified if the cops file a C Summary

The controversy blew up last week, after AIB tweeted a picture of a doppelganger of Modi looking at his mobile phone at a railway station alongside a photo of the PM on which a 'dog filter' was superimposed from the Snapchat app.

Also read - Narendra Modi's lookalike MP Ramchandran reacts to AIB's 'humiliating' Snapchat post

The city cops were flooded with complaints from across the country, after one of the Twitterati, Reetesh Maheshwari, tagged the Mumbai

Police and demanding that strict action be taken against AIB for the "disrespectful" joke directed at the PM.

The police took suo motu action and, on Friday, lodged an FIR against the Twitter handle administrator of AIB under Section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

Also read - Joke on Narendra Modi: Mysterious ways of Mumbai police officials

The cops had said that the picture shared by AIB was fully morphed and it looked like PM Modi, hence it was defamatory. A crime branch officer had earlier said that they registered the FIR after taking legal advice from an expert, who said that prima facie, the act amounted to a cognisable offence.

Also read: FIR against AIB for tweeting Narendra Modi photo with the dog filter

The police's move to file an FIR met with backlash from several people, including music composer Vishal Dadlani, who extended support to AIB. Few netizens also cited examples of sexual offence cases and criticised the cops for not showing the same speedy action in those cases.

Also read: AIB gets into trouble after tweeting a photo of Narendra Modi with the dog filter

The charges

Section 500 (defamation) of IPC, Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of IT Act

What is C Summary?

It is filed when an error is made in facts while filing a criminal complaint. Once it is filed in court, it puts an end to the case altogether.

Suburban locals, Metro and Monorail in Mumbai: Pre-lockdown and now