The Tamil Nadu Police on Saturday registered an FIR against a Twitter user Mohammed Tanvir, whose profile described him as a journalist, and Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Prashant Patel Umrao under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for disinformation and claiming that migrant workers have been fatally attacked in Tamil Nadu.
Tanvir had tweeted two videos claiming that Hindi-speaking people were being attacked in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu director general of police C Sylendra Babu on Thursday had made it clear that there were no targeted attacks on Hindi-speaking people in the state. Babu also put out a video clarification to flag that both the videos had nothing to do with hate crimes against the Hindi-speaking population.
After the Tamil Nadu DGP’s clarification, the Bihar Police on Friday said the videos circulating on social media were “misleading”.
The News Minute reported that the Tiruppur North Police booked an editor of Dainik Bhaskar daily under sections 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups) and 505(i)(b) (intent to cause fear or alarm to the public) of the IPC. The Tiruppur cyber crime police also booked Tanveer under the same sections along with Information Technology Act 56(D).
Meanwhile, the Thoothukudi Central Police registered a case against Umrao for spreading wrong information, under IPC sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A, 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) on Saturday, March 4, the report added.
NDTV reported that Umrao had posted on Twitter that “12 migrants from Bihar were hung to death in Tamil Nadu for speaking in Hindi” while sharing the image of Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav with Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin.
Meanwhile, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said a four-member team will visit the southern state to take stock of the situation.
“As soon as I got to know though newspapers, I directed officials to look into the matter. They talked with the Tamil Nadu government and reported that a team should be sent from here,” Nitish Kumar said, adding that the four-member team will look into the matter in detail.
Kumar on Thursday raised concerns after a purported video of “attacks” on Bihar-based migrant labourers working in Tamil Nadu surfaced on social media.
The issue also rocked the Bihar assembly in the pre-lunch session on Friday.
Tejashwi Yadav reiterated that Tamil Nadu DGP had refuted such reports and accused BJP of not listening to facts. Speaking in the assembly, he said BJP could approach the Union home minister to form a team to verify facts. He also questioned the Opposition leader who showed videos on his mobile phone about alleged attacks on migrants from Bihar in Tamil Nadu.
Industrialists also sought to allay fears after some of the workers were taken in by the rumours and wanted to leave for their native place. K Baskaran secretary of the Kakkalur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association (KIEMA) said these rumours are affecting MSME industries in the state.
The statement by the KIEMA secretary came after many workers at the Kakkalur Industrial Estate near Chennai began leaving for their hometowns.
(With inputs from agencies)
