India suspended two senior police officers and transferred a judge Tuesday over the arrests of two women for Facebook posts in a case that sparked outrage and fierce debate over India's Internet laws. The women, both 21, were arrested a week ago over comments on the social networking site questioning the shutdown of Mumbai for the funeral of the hard-line politician Bal Thackeray.
Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, launched an inquiry into the arrests amid a public outcry over curbs on free speech. On Tuesday state home minister R.R. Patil announced the suspension of superintendent Ravindra Sengaonkar and senior inspector Shrikant Pingle.
"There was no need to charge the girls under wrong sections," Patil told reporters. A Facebook post by Shaheen Dhada on the day of the funeral for Thackeray, whose party has a reputation for intimidation and violence, said that Mumbai had shut down "due to fear, not due to respect".
Renu Srinivasan "liked", shared and agreed to the post, commenting that despite respect for Thackeray, "it doesn't make sense to shut down everything!" the BBC reported after an interview with the women. The magistrate in Palghar town north of Mumbai who sent the women to judicial custody and then bailed them has also been transferred by the Bombay High Court, the Press Trust of India reported. Dhada and Srinivasan were each granted bail for 15,000 rupees (270 dollars) straight after they were handed two weeks in custody.
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