The Economic Offence Unit (EoU) of the Bihar police has booked four persons for allegedly spreading “fake” videos of migrant workers from the state being killed and beaten up in Tamil Nadu, a senior police officer said.
Those named in the first information report (FIR) have been identified as — Aman Kumar Ravidas, Rakesh Tiwari (Prayas News), Manish Kashyap (owner of Sachtak News, a YouTube channel) and Twitter user Yuvraj Singh Rajput.
Ravidas, a resident of Jamui, has been arrested.
Additional director general (ADG) of police (headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar said the EoU has identified more than 30 fake videos and posts circulated on social media related to the matter. “During investigation, police found that one of the videos circulated on social media regarding hanging a man’s body after his murder is an old incident and the deceased does not belong to Bihar,” he said.
Gangwar said Yuvraj is also wanted in a case lodged in Bhojpur. “He had also uploaded objectionable messages and posts after Saran violence, which took place on February 2 at Sidhariatola village of Mubarakpur panchayat, resulting in the death of two persons,” he said.
“EoU has requested social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, Gmail to preserve 42 objectionable video posts and links for 90 days which were found misleading and fake,” Gangwar said.
The Bihar government had earlier sent a four-member team of top officials to Tamil Nadu to speak to officials there and visit places like Tiruppur where the migrants were allegedly beaten up by local people.
The ADG told HT that the team visited the said places, talked to migrants and met with officials concerned.
