An Indian Police Service officer has lodged a complaint against social networking site Facebook for allegedly maligning the image of Mahatma Gandhi through an online group.

Amitabh Thakur, an IPS officer of UP cadre, has lodged the FIR against Facebook and others at Gomti Nagar police station in Lucknow for allegedly portraying Gandhi in a wrong manner and spreading hatred, police sources said.

In his complaint, Thakur alleged that abuses and dirty words have been used against Gandhi in the "I hate Gandhi group" on the social networking site.

He claimed the words and abuses were of such nature that they are wantonly

giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

The FIR has been lodged under section 153 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of communities and other grounds), 153 A (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 153 B (public nuisance), 290 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 504 (criminal intimidation) 506 and 66 A IT Act (using Information Technology for these purposes).

Other than Facebook, those who have been named in the FIR are those who have been running the group including Rahul Devgan, Gaurab Banerjee, Rohan Shinde, Shikshit Kumar, Gadadhar Ghoshal, Deven Tandan and Vignesh NV.