Ranchi: A young city entrepreneur was arrested on Wednesday for posting a meme using a popular ad of a mouth freshener and juxtaposing it with footage of the chief minister admonishing Opposition members in the Assembly, the police action inviting widespread criticism online and offline.

Sarabpreet Singh, in his early thirties and creator of the e-commerce and blogging website Made In Ranchi, has been charged with impersonation, cheating and forgery, among others, triggering a campaign for freedom of expression on Twitter and Facebook.

The 32-second clip, uploaded on the Twitter and Facebook accounts of Made In Ranchi on April 1, begins with a popular Bollywood song from the Nineties that uses the phrase " mirchi lagi" and is followed by the Assembly's winter session footage where chief minister Raghubar Das purportedly repeats the phrase while reproving MLAs. In between, the meme uses the voice over from the Mentos ad.

The FIR, a copy of which is with this newspaper, recorded the offence as, "Twitter account mein mukhyamantri ke khilaf apattijanak video upload ka (Uploading an objectionable video against the CM on Twitter)."

It also said the cyber police station was acting on a trademark infringement complaint from Perfetti Van Melle India Ltd, the Indian arm of the Italian corporation that manufactures the scotch mint.

Singh has been booked under sections 419 (impersonation), 420 (fraud) and 468 (forgery) of the IPC, section 103 (false trademark) and 105 (subsequent offence) of the Trademark Act, 1999, and Section 66c and 66d (identity theft) of the IT Act. If proven guilty, the maximum punishment is seven years in jail and fine or both.

Cyber police station in-charge Shradha Kerketta refused to comment while CID SP Sunil Bhaskar could not be contacted despite attempts.

An entrepreneur, requesting anonymity, told this newspaper that such memes existed all over social media. "It is curious why the (Mentos) company chose to act in this one case. The company could have sent an objection to Made in Ranchi. Arresting the creator of the website seems out of proportion," he said, echoing the sentiments expressed on social media after Singh's arrest.

"People of Ranchi, today, Sarabpreet was arrested by Jharkhand Police because he created a fun video of the Chief Minister in this Twitter message. Sarabpreet is one of the most astonishing technology entrepreneurs in Ranchi. Police is funded by taxpayers to protect honest citizens. When police become abusers, people have to rise up. Mr Raghubar Das, you are the guardian of the state. You have used police of the state as your personal henchmen to settle your petty grievances. #FreeSarabpreet," read a tweet.

The Facebook page of a Ranchi resident said, "...A young entrepreneur from Ranchi... cannot be arrested because he posted a video mocking the chief minister in fun spirit. This video is exercise of freedom of expression. Power of police cannot be used to arrest creator of Made in Ranchi...#ReleaseSarabpreet."