Representative image showing a taxi.
Credit: iStock Photo
Bengaluru: Bengaluru police arrested a cab driver who allegedly shared an offensive Facebook post about Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and later released him on bail.
Padmanabh, a Mandya native living in Bengaluru, allegedly shared a picture of Siddaramaiah captioned 'Fakir Sidramullah Khan' on his Facebook account 'Tappu Maaduvavara Appa Naane', which roughly translates to "I am the father of the wrongdoers".
On December 14, Padmanabh shared an edited picture that showed Siddaramaiah with his eyes wide open. It was captioned in Kannada: 'Hudugiyaranna haagu auntiyaranna kandaga nanna kannu heege yeddubiduttade kanrula, yentha madodhu friends?'.
A loose translation would be, "What should I do, friends? My eyes open up like this when I see girls and aunties."
A social worker from Sunkadakatte filed a complaint at the Kamakshipalya police station, seeking strict action against him.
Police took up a case under the relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, tracked Padmanabh down and confiscated his phone, according to an officer close to the investigation.
Police, however, believe that Padmanabh "wasn't quite aware of the consequences when he shared the pictures".
"He is a Class 9 dropout and doesn't know how to edit photos. He just saw some photos on social media and found them enough to be shared on his Facebook account. That's there is to it," the officer told DH.
According to the officer, these incidents keep happening because people "mindlessly" share everything they see online.
Padmanabh is a cab driver by profession.