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Kolkata: The West Bengal Police’s decision to arrest a social media user over a sarcastic post has triggered fresh allegations of state overreach and selective enforcement, with rights groups warning that the criminal law which is believed to be a stand-in for the earlier sedition law is increasingly being used to police online speech.

Amit Nandi, a social activist from Chinsurah, Hooghly, was arrested on February 14. The first information report against him mentioned a Facebook post in which Nandi had mocked a traffic-safety message displayed at a traffic post in an area which falls under the jurisdiction of the Kanthi police station in Purba Medinipur district. 

According to the FIR, Nandi’s post, now deleted, had said, “Gari kheye mod chalabben na (don’t drink cars and drive alcohol)” – a play on the “mod kheye gari chalaben na (don’t drive after drinking alcohol)” slogan used by police. Nandi’s post was made on January 27.

The FIR was filed on January 28 by Sub-Inspector Dilip Gupta, who handles social media-related matters at Kanthi police station. In it, the post was described as a “distortion” of a public-awareness message that the district police had been uploading on its official page.

Gupta told The Wire, “The post is........

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