MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The Maharashtra police on Thursday monitored social media messages that could disturb the communal harmony and the law and order situation in the state, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the assembly in the evening. “The police and I were on alert. Also, security was tightened in Mumbai and Nagpur,” he said.

The security establishment took note of the wave of angry outbursts in social media by youths from the minority community over the execution of Yakub Memon .

These posts—with messages such as ‘two rules for justice in India’ and ‘Muslims can never get justice in India’—are a reflection of the “misplaced sense of victimhood” that the hanging has created in the minds of the minority youth, intelligence agencies believe.

Union home ministry sources said the trend is being watched with great concern as radical elements may exploit such vulnerabilities and precipitate both social trouble and terrorism. “The development is worrying because such posts are large in volume; they don’t talk about the case on legal merit. The common refrain is that Muslims can’t get justice in India. Many have brought the contrast of sentences to the riot accused and Memon to argue this. As most of these posts are coming from youth, it’s being seen as a cause for worry,” said a home ministry official.

In 2012, the social media had been used by anti-social and communal elements to foment trouble in Assam, resulting in large-scale violence.

