Provocative FB post: Harish Bangera, who languished in Saudi prison for 19 mths finally reaches homeland

Team Udayavani, Aug 18, 2021, 12:08 PM IST

Mangaluru: Harish Bangera, who had been languishing in Saudi Prison for nearly 19 months following his arrest for an alleged provocative Facebook post against Islam’s Holy Kaaba site in Mecca and Saudi’s Prince has finally landed in Bengaluru after being released from the prison.

Bangera was arrested in December 2019 over the blasphemous content on Facebook. However, investigations revealed that a fake account was created on Facebook in the name of Harish Bangera and a series of derogatory comments were posted from this account.

The posts went viral and Bangera was arrested immediately. His employers even terminated him from the job with immediate effect following his arrest.

Harish’s wife had filed a complaint at a Udupi police station after Harish had pled innocence and alleged conspiracy against him. The cyber police investigating the case had arrested two brothers from Moodabidri for creating a fake account on Facebook in the name of Harish Bangera.

The investigation findings were provided to the Saudi Arabian government and these things played a stellar role in securing his release.

Earlier yesterday, Shobha Karandlaje, union minister for agriculture and farmers’ welfare informed that she received an official message with regard Bangera’s release from the Indian embassy in Riyadh of Saudi Arabia.