Odisha: BJD lodges complaint over 'objectionable' social media posts

Bhubaneswar, Aug 20 (PTI) The Opposition BJD on Wednesday lodged an official complaint demanding the arrest of those involved in putting up "objectionable and scurrilous" posts on social media against party chief Naveen Patnaik and his close aides V K Pandian and the latter's wife Sujata R Karthikeyan.

The regional party's IT and social media cell head and former MP Amar Patnaik said in a post on X: "... these posts have deeply offended the people of Odisha who love Naveen Patnaik as a part of their families. The posts were so insensitive, sub-standard and in poor taste that I, as head of the BJD IT and Social Media cell, have been compelled to lodge a strong protest and complaint with @DGPOdisha to take immediate action to not only ask @Meta to take down these posts immediately, but also apprehend the handlers of these pages and initiate immediate criminal action against them." "If no action is taken immediately, I and the people of Odisha would be convinced that these posts were initiated and disseminated at the behest of @BJP4Odisha and the Government of @MohanMOdisha from fake handles to cause criminal defamation, public outrage and disharmony and mental stress not only to the leaders on the video, but, in fact, to the people of Odisha at large. May good sense prevail over such misdirected souls and an otherwise callous, indifferent and clueless Government!" he said.

He also mentioned how AI-generated videos projected Pandian and his wife, both former IAS officers, poorly.

"The entire content posted by the Facebook ID is malicious, slanderous and clearly intended to incite public discontent, defame public figures and disrupt political and social harmony," Patnaik said in a letter to Odisha DGP Y B Khurania and requested him to treat it as an FIR. PTI AAM AAM ACD