Man booked for posting currency note on Facebook with Godse’s image over Gandhi’s

Police say he has been absconding since the incident

The Sidhi police have booked a man — said to be a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad — for replacing Mahatma Gandhi’s image with his assassin Nathuram Godse’s on a currency note in a social media post, days after stating they could not make a case out of the incident.

“The accused is still absconding, and we are yet to trace him,” S.M. Patel, in-charge, Kotwali Sidhi police station, told The Hindu. On May 22, he said, “There is no case in this.”

The police registered the case on May 26, a week after the post was shared on Facebook, under Section 153-A [Promoting enmity between different groups on various grounds and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony] of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

On the birth anniversary of Godse on May 19, Shivam Shukla posted the edited image of a ₹10 currency note and wrote: “Long live Nathuram Godse” in the post description. He also shared a modified version of Gandhi’s couplet along with the post: “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram, desh bacha gaye Nathuram (Nathuram saved the country)”.

On May 20, the National Students’ Union of India, the student wing of the Congress, complained to the police demanding a case be registered against Mr. Shukla, said to be a student leader of the ABVP — affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — on charges of sedition and fraud.