PRAYAGRAJ, Oct. 10 -- The Allahabad high court refused to quash an FIR lodged against petiti- oner Afaq Ahmad who had allegedly forwarded an inflammatory message to several individuals. It observed that circulating a WhatsApp message to multiple persons alleging that people of a particular community were being targeted would prima facie amount to offence of promoting feeling of enmity, hatred and ill will between religious communities under section 353 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. The petitioner had conveyed a subtle message that his brother had been targeted in a false case, because of him belonging to a particular community. During the court proceedings, the counsel for the applicant argued that in the alleged post, only resentment was shown by the petitioner about his brother's arrest and the same was not intended to disturb public peace, tranquillity or communal harmony in any manner. Dismissing the writ petition filed by Afaq Ahmad, a division bench comprising Justice JJ Munir and Justice Pramod Kumar Srivastava in its judgment on September 26 said those unsaid words "would prima facie outrage religious feelings of a class of citizens hailing from a particular community, who would think that they are being targeted because of belonging to a particular religious community". The court further observed that sending such a message to multiple persons, alleging targeting of members of one religious group, prima facie attracts the ingredients of section 353 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. htc...