A Facebook post resulted in the arrest of two young girls in Palghar, Maharashtra.

Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar met them and others present in Palghar to find out what actually happened.

A remark on Facebook questioning the shutdown in Mumbai and Maharashtra for Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray's funeral led to the arrests of Shaheen Dhada and her friend Reenu Srinivasan.

While Shaheen and Reenu were released on bail, ten men were arrested and sent to judicial custody for ransacking Shaheen's uncle's clinic.

This was a case where the virtual world met the real world, and the real world reacted violently.

Palghar is a town panchayat 87 kilometres from Mumbai on the Virar-Dahanu stretch to the north of Mumbai.

The area outside Palghar station is as crowded as any other suburban railway station in Mumbai. The autorickshaw drivers are rude -- like many in Mumbai -- and after asking several of them, one finally agrees to take me to the Dhada hospital.

On our way we see a huge freshly garlanded portrait of Balasaheb Thackeray in the middle of the road.

Outside the hospital are three OB news television vans, with curious onlookers crowding around to see what is happening.

Inside, the receptionist directs journalists to the consulting room. There are no patients around and women working in the hospital are seen giggling in a corner, perhaps enjoying the attention the hospital has been getting in recent days.

Farook Dhada, Shaheen's father, is noncommittal when he is asked what he plans to do next. "What can I plan? The police have called us again; I am going to the police station," he says.

In the consulting room, journalists crowd around Shaheen's uncle, Dr Abdul Gaffar Dhada, whose orthopaedic hospital was ransacked. He has both Shaheen and Reenu sitting next to him covered in veils with just their eyes visible.

Shaheen and Reenu answer questions softly and carefully, giving politically correct statements. Shaheen says her comment on Facebook was offhand and she now regrets it.

The girls add that lady constables were present when they were arrested and held at the Palghar police station.

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