After spending two years in a Saudi prison, Harish Bangera – who was falsely accused of posting ‘blasphemous’ content on social media – was finally released from prison. He flew back to Bengaluru from Dammam, Saudi Arabia on August 17.
Bangera, a resident of Beejady village near Kundapur in Udupi district, had been working as an air-conditioner technician in a company in Saudi Arabia since 2014. In 2019, he was arrested by Saudi Arabia police for allegedly sharing a ‘blasphemous’ Facebook post on Mecca and the Saudi Crown Prince.
After his arrest, Bangera’s employers terminated him from his job.
It all started when in Dec 2019, when Bangera had shared a video related to Mangaluru riots. Later he had felt that the video was not in good taste and deleted it from his Facebook account. He had even apologized for uploading this ‘unwarranted’ post and deactivated his Facebook account.
However, just after a few hours, a new account was created in his name with incendiary content that was posted using a fake profile with his own photograph. This led to his arrest by the Saudi Police.
It was Bangera’s wife who then took this matter to the local police. Following an investigation based on her complaint, the Udupi police in Oct 2020 had arrested Abdul Huyez and Abdul Thuyez, two brothers from Moodbidri, for impersonating Bangera on social media. It was revealed that it was the brothers who had created the false account and posted the ‘blasphemous’ content.
The police then located Huyez by tracing the phone that was used to create the fake Facebook account and then upload the controversial post under Bangera’s name.
The Indian Embassy, Mangaluru Association Saudi Arabia (MASA), Indian Overseas Forum and several other organisations played a very important role in securing the release of Bangera.
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