Police Who Made Facebook Arrests Suspended

Shaheen Dhada, right, and Renu Srinivas, the women who were arrested for a Facebook post, speaking to the media in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on Nov. 20.

Two police officers in the state of Maharashtra who recently arrested two young women over a Facebook post were suspended from duty on Tuesday, while the state changed the way it would enforce a controversial law.

The moves were praised as a victory by free speech advocates, who have been sharply critical of the arrests and of India’s loosely defined Internet law.

Ravindra Sengaonkar, the police chief in the Thane district outside Mumbai, and Srikant Pingle, the officer in charge of the Palghar police station there, were suspended and a departmental inquiry initiated, the home minister of Maharashtra, R.R. Patil, announced in a news conference.

The additional superintendent of police in the same district, Sangram Singh Nishandar, has also received a warning, Mr. Patil said.

Last week, the police arrested Shaheen Dhada, 21, a medical student, after she posted an update on the social media site Facebook questioning the forced citywide shutdown after a far-right Hindu political leader died in Mumbai. A friend who clicked “Like” on the post, Renu Srinivasan, 20, was also arrested.

The women were charged with engaging in speech that was offensive and hateful for a post that many experts say was neither.

“I don’t have any enmity toward them,” Ms. Srinivasan’s father told the news channel NDTV on Tuesday, referring to the police. “If there was no support from the media or the people in general from all over the country, I would have been in trouble.”

Much of the criticism voiced online and by legal experts has focused on the Information Technology Act of 2008. The law was overhauled after the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai to grant the government broader powers to combat cybercrime, among other things. On Tuesday, Mr. Patil said that henceforth in cases involving violations of the I.T. Act, a senior officer would first investigate the matter and then a lawyer would be consulted before any action was taken.

Both women were arrested and charged under section 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code, which relates to statements that are likely to create enmity, hatred or ill will between classes, and Section 66A of the I.T. Act.

They were both released on bail, but the charges have yet to be dropped.