Kerala police arrest man for allegedly calling ‘ambulance baby’ a ‘Jihadi seed’

Binil Somasundaram was arrested for his Facebook post, now deleted, which said that because of the child's religion, the Kerala government stepped in to help.

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At a time when the live Facebook telecast of the journey of an ambulance, carrying a 15-day-old baby with a heart problem, was being followed with worry and hope, a keyboard warrior was at work. When the Kerala government was stepping in to make sure the baby receives treatment swiftly, much to the relief of the parents, Binil Somasundaram, a resident of Kadavoor, decided to write on social media that the government was doing this only because the baby is a ‘jihadi seed.’

“Kerala should make way for the ambulance bearing the number plate KL 60 J 7739 because the patient coming in that is the child of ‘Sania-Mithah’ couple,” Binil wrote in the Facebook post. He also added that the kid was ‘Jihadi seed’ and that was the reason why the government was giving the treatment free for the baby. The Facebook post created massive outrage and was subsequently deleted.

Binil, who has described himself as a ‘sevak at Hindurashtra’ in Facebook, later put up another post claiming that his account was hacked and some people were trying to defame him. However, screenshots of his Facebook post were widely circulated and a suo motu case was filed against him under the direction of Kochi city Police Commissioner Surendran.

Binil, who is resident of Kadavoor in Ernakulam district was arrested by the Central Police on Friday morning.

“Binil has been arrested under charges Section 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), Section 505 (2) (Statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) and Section 295 A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli­gious beliefs),” a police official told TNM.

The news of the journey of the ambulance, carrying the 15-day-old baby from Mangaluru to Thiruvananthapuram, had gone viral earlier this week. The baby needed a heart valve surgery and the journey was being telecast live on Facebook so that people would know when the ambulance was approaching and make way for it. The Kerala government then intervened and offered to sponsor the treatment at a hospital in Kochi, rather than the ambulance needing to travel all the way to Thiruvananthapuram. The baby received treatment at Amrita Hospital in Kochi.

Also read: Kerala govt to pay for 'ambulance baby' surgery, vehicle diverted to Kochi