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Police arrest unmarried men and women taking selfies together in Mumbai

In Mumbai, a selfie can get you arrested — if you’re not married to the person you’re posing with.

In India, the “moral police" have deemed it inappropriate for an unmarried couple to take selfies together because of how close their bodies must be to each other in order to squeeze themselves into the photograph.

Not only is it “inappropriate,” it’s arrest-worthy.

According to the Mumbai Mirror, police have already arrested a number of people caught taking the questionable photographs.

In one case, police intervened when a group of seven friends in their early twenties stopped to take a photo on the Dahisar Bridge.

"We were seven friends out to have some fun. I have been part of hundreds of such group selfies. Never thought it was indecent or would offend anybody’s sensitivities," Ulrika Fernandes, 21, one of the friends in the photo, told the Mumbai Mirror.

The friends were taken to the police station where the men were fined for “indecent behaviour.” A female constable lectured Fernandes for lettering men touch her.

"It was shocking and deeply humiliating. Though she insisted that a guy had his arm around my waist, he actually had his arm around my shoulder," Fernandes said.

This apparent selfie crackdown is part of a greater initiative to protect women from harassment, something police are preparing to deal with as large crowds are due to arrive for the Navratri festival.

"The squads’ mandate is to concentrate on preventing harassment of women and they are supposed to refrain from indulging in any kind of moral policing. It is again reiterated that Mumbai Police is firm on its stand that it will not act as the moral police." Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said in a damage-control statement, denying issuing a crackdown on “indecent behaviour” in public spaces.

A young unmarried Indian couple claimed they were “moral policed,” too. Read their account here.

After these “moral policing” stories made headlines, police were ordered to take a workshop during which they were taught to differentiate between anti-harassment measures and moral policing, The Times of India reported.