Mumbai: The two girls at the centre of the controversy over a Facebook post in which they questioned the Mumbai shutdown after the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray have said that they fear for their lives. The girl who posted the status has now deactivated her Facebook account.

The girl who liked the status said that they had apologised for the status only because they feared for their and their families’ safety, and that hurting anybody was not their intention.

The two girls had been briefly arrested by the Mumbai police on Monday over charges of hurting “religious sentiments”. However, the arrests drew widespread criticism from the media and the society alike, who slammed it as a blatant violation of fundamental rights guaranteed to each Indian citizen by the Constitution.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said that the case might have been mishandled by the Maharashtra police and that the government could step in to save the situation. “The Maharashtra police mishandled the law, it’s illegal to arrest people like this,” he said.

Activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Police officers who arrested the two girls in Mumbai shud be immediately dismissed. That’s minimum that the govt ought to do.(sic)” Activist Kiran Bedi also said, “The complaint was wrong, Magistrate was wrong, the police were equally wrong.”

Earlier on Monday, Press Council of India chief and former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Chavan demanding action against the policemen. In his letter, he called the arrest absurd, wrongful and a criminal act.

The girls released within hours of their arrest on Monday evening, looked visibly shaken as they spoke to reporters about their trauma. They, however, added that the police were kind in their treatment to them. “They treated us very nicely. They didn’t harm us,” said the girl who had liked the status.

Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, the Mumbai police arrested nine people in connection with the attack on the clinic of a relative of the girl who had posted the status. Sources said the nine were not Shiv Sainiks.

The arrests came even as a Shiv Sena leader justified the action taken against the girls by the police. The party’s Thane rural chief Prabhakar Raul defended the police action of arresting the two girls, saying any comment against Bal Thackeray will not be tolerated.

“Balasaheb Thackeray is our God. We will not tolerate any offensive comments against him. No Shiv Sainik and no Marathi Manoos will remain silent. The police knows who was behind the Facebook comment. The arrest is justified,” Raul had said.