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PANAJI: Police arrested owners of two north Goa beach belt establishments whose LED signboards displayed “Pakistan Zindabad” slogan in two separate cases. Cops also disconnected the LED boards at Revive Hair Cutting Salon, Baga, and Whiskey Pedia, Arpora, and charged the owners under BNS and IT Act provisions for threatening India’s unity, integrity, security and sovereignty.CM Pramod Sawant said, “The boards were put up without permission. Police have already taken action against the accused.””The accused intentionally displayed slogan as ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ in scrolling text on LED board at their store, thereby causing fear, anger and provocation among locals present at the site and alienation against sovereignty and integrity of India, causing public disturbance and outrage among general public by displaying seditious, anti-national messages through an electronic device connected to the internet/computer system, thereby committed an offence,” according to the Anjuna police FIR against Whiskey Pedia.Calangute police said Revive Hair Cutting Salon signboard display “amounted to waging psychological war and propaganda against nation”.Arpora locals swarmed the police station late Tuesday after they saw Whiskey Pedia’s LED board displaying ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, demanding action against it. Arpora sarpanch Rohan Redkar said store staffers were rude when asked to turn off the sign, infuriating locals. The situation returned to normal after police action. Ranchit Bhatia and Vipin Pahuja from Haryana, Vinay Chandra Rao and Krishna Lamani from Karnataka, and Manoj Kumar from Bihar of Whiskey Pedia were arrested. Calangute police arrested Mohd Farman and Mohd Shavez from Uttar Pradesh, Noushad Kasim from Delhi and Rakesh Das from Calangute of Revive Hair Cutting Salon.Urging locals to maintain calm, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo said, “Nobody should take law into their own hands. Police are there to take care of this.””Such signboards can be easily hacked using Chinese apps. It is most likely they were hacked, according to initial investigations. It will be a tough task to locate the hackers,” said a police source.”We have called an emergency meeting Thursday and will cancel the licence of the wine store. Even if the signboard was hacked, a thorough investigation should be carried out to find the culprit. Goa is a peaceful state and no communal tension should be created,” Arpora sarpanch Redkar said.
