Udupi: On Sunday, the Udupi district police in Karnataka booked Dr Keerthan Upadhya, a surgeon at a private hospital in Udupi’s Brahmavara, over an alleged communal post against Muslims on the social media platform X.
On July 13, a user on X asked, “If you could remove one thing from this world, what would it be?” Dr Upadhya responded with “Muslim community,” sparking widespread public outrage.
The communal response quickly went viral, prompting the doctor to delete it and later claim that his account had been hacked.
In his defense, Dr Upadhya stated, “I had stopped using Twitter a few months back and realized something unwanted was posted. Someone was using my account. I have changed my password, login details, and everything related to the account. My account was hacked. Apologies to all here.”
Despite the deletion, many social media users shared screenshots of the offensive post and demanded action against the accused.
Additionally, they uncovered older tweets from the doctor, which contained derogatory remarks about Islam and the Muslim community, raising concerns about his ability to provide unbiased medical care to Muslim patients.
The Udupi town police filed a suo motu case against Upadhya following the public outcry.
Sub-inspector Ajmal Rahim, head of the Udupi district police’s social media monitoring cell, lodged the complaint, requesting legal action for the doctor’s attempts to incite religious hatred and disrupt communal harmony.
An official from Mahesh Private Hospital, where Upadhya is employed, confirmed that the hospital management learned about the incident through social media. The hospital has initiated an investigation and placed Upadhya on indefinite leave pending the outcome.
