After the Palghar police filed a closure report in the Facebook arrest case, the court has now sent a notice to complainant Bhushan Sankhe.

The judicial magistrate (First Class), VS Yadav, sent a notice to Sankhe, the Shiv Sena leader who lodged a complaint against Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan. No particular time has been specified for the reply to the notice, but it is certain that proceedings will begin only after the winter vacations, said Sudhir Gupta, counsel of both the girls.

“I have seen the ‘C’ closure report filed by DSP Vijaykant Sagar, which said that the complaint was filed due to a misunderstanding. Hence, the complaint is neither true nor false and the charges against both the girls should be dropped under Section 169 CrPC,” said Gupta.The report also says that during investigation, 19 persons had said that their religious sentiments were hurt and 11 others said that they felt that the timing of the comment was wrong.

Now, Sankhe can either accept the police report, or file a petition to probe the case under section 156(3) of the CrPC. Sources close to Sankhe say that he will challenge the report filed by the police and not step back. Meanwhile, the police have arrested 15 more persons involved in vandalising the Dhada Orthopedic hospital on November 18.