A 21-year-old woman and her friend were arrested for allegedly posting and endorsing a comment on Facebook that was critical of the two-day bandh following the death of Mumbai politician Bal Thackeray on Saturday, according to several independent media reports.

“Her comment said people like Thackeray are born and die daily and one should not observe a bandh for that,” police inspector Uttam Sonawane told the Mumbai Mirror, which first reported the news in a short story this morning. Her alleged criticism was referring to the de facto shutdown of India’s financial capital for two days from Saturday, which was supported by some Thackeray sympathisers and mourners.

The Mirror wrote that the two women, one of whom had ‘liked’ the comment on the social media platform, were arrested on Sunday and booked under Section 295(a) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) - hurting religious sentiments - and Section 64 (a) of the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000.

As first pointed out by Medianama, the specific section of the IT Act was likely to have been misreported, more probably having intended to refer to section 66A which criminalises electronically communicated information that is “grossly offensive” or “has menacing character”, as well as any message sent “for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience”.

Section 295(a) of the IPC covers “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”.

NDTV journalist Sreenivasan Jain said on Twitter at 10:44am that no arrests had actually taken place and that the police was merely “looking into it”, but just after 3pm he tweeted that an NDTV reporter had independently confirmed the story. NDTV and several papers later carried copy by the French wire Agence-France Presse (AFP) that substantially confirmed the Mirror’s story of two arrests having taken place.

The AFP was told by police inspector Shrikant Pingle that “the two women will be produced in a local court later this afternoon. They are being charged for hurting religious sentiments”.

NDTV reported at 4:20pm that the women were granted bail after paying Rs 15,000 each.

Meanwhile, former Supreme Court justice Markandey Katju, who now heads the Press Council of India (PCI), blogged that he has written a letter to Maharashtra’s Chief Minister requesting him to:

[…] immediately order the suspension, arrest, chargesheeting and criminal prosecution of the police personnel (however high they may be) who ordered as well as implemented the arrest of that woman, failing which I will deem it that you as Chief Minister are unable to run the state in a democratic manner as envisaged by the Constitution to which you have taken oath, and then the legal consequences will follow.

The AFP also reported:

Ironically, after a police complaint was filed by a local Shiv Sena leader, Sena activists allegedly vandalised her uncle’s medical clinic, broke window panes and flowerpots. No action has been taken as yet against the Shiv Sainiks who allegedly vandalised the clinic, though police complaint has been filed.