Karnataka youth released after spending 604 days in Saudi Arabian jail

The fake Facebook account caused trouble

MUMBAI: Harish Bangera, a 34-year-old air-conditioning technician from Karnataka's Udupi district, was sentenced to 604 days in a Saudi jail for defaming the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

He had to spend torturous days in jail due to an offensive post placed in Harish's name on Facebook. When he finally returned to India after being released from jail two days ago, his family was overjoyed.

Harish Bangera was arrested and jailed for posting an offensive post about the Saudi Crown Prince on Facebook. He was likely to face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

But after Harish's wife lodged a complaint with the Udupi police, the investigation revealed that the two accused had opened a fake Facebook account in Harish's name and defamed the Saudi prince.

Harish was released from prison 604 days after police translated the chargesheet against the two men into Arabic and sent it to Saudi authorities, and arrived in India on Wednesday.

However, in this case, the post that Harish Bangera had earlier posted on Facebook was the cause of his torture. A.C. in the city of Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Bangra, who works as a technician, posted on Facebook in favor of the Government of India's Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.

Its owner in Saudi was offended after reading this post. So Harish posted a video on the post and apologized. Then I also deactivated my Facebook account. But then all of a sudden someone started a Facebook account in the name of Harish Bangera and wrote abusive things about the Saudi Crown Prince. Harish was arrested by Saudi police on December 22, 2019 and remanded in custody.

At home, Harish's wife informed Udupi police that someone had defamed the Saudi Crown Prince by opening a fake account in her husband's name and this led to her husband's arrest.

Police, with the help of a cyber cell, set the wheels in motion and arrested two brothers, Abdul Huez and Abdul Juez, from Moodbidri village in southern Kannada. In a police interrogation, he said he was outraged that Harish Bangera favored the citizenship law.

So when he found out that Harish had closed his Facebook account, he immediately opened a fake account in his name and posted a post defaming the Saudi prince so that Harish would be annoyed. Following the arrest of the two, the police sent all the details of the case to the Saudi government after the Foreign Ministry. Harish was finally released on day 604. And Hemkhem came to India.