A Kanpur court released an alleged cybercriminal within 24 hours of arrest on the charge of posting a morphed photograph of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s daughter and making derogatory remarks against her.

The Uttar Pradesh cyber police had arrested Nageshwar Singh Baghel, 50, from his village, Kanchanpur Purva, Kalyanpur, in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, on Saturday evening.

The court, however, found that such a manner of arrest was unacceptable, particularly after the Supreme Court had issued a clear guideline that there was no need to arrest when the punishment for the crime was less than seven years in jail. A special court released Baghel on Sunday evening.

Satish Yadav, in-charge of Kanpur cyber police, said: “We identified the accused persons as Bharat Kumar Patel, Vinod Kumar and Nageshwar. Their social media accounts are managed from Pennsylvania in the US, Jaunpur in UP and Rewa in MP, respectively.”

Ram temple plea

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday seeking an FIR and a fair and time-bound probe into the alleged embezzlement of funds from the Ayodhya Ram temple.

The petition, filed by two advocates, said a CBI-led multi-disciplinary special investigation team (SIT) should investigate the alleged financial irregularities and other purported “illegalities” concerning the affairs and administration of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

Additional reporting by PTI