The Uttar Pradesh Police Tuesday registered an FIR against Twitter, propaganda website Alt News co-founder Muhammed Zubair, propaganda website The Wire, propagandists Rana Ayyub and Saba Naqvi, and Congress leaders Maskoor Usmani, Shama Mohamed, and Salman Nizami.
In the FIR, police noted that these people and organizations spread manipulated video to give a communal twist to a personal fight.
Even when the facts surfaced, they did not delete the tweets.
Propagandist Zubair deleted the tweets after the FIR was registered.
In the Ghaziabad incident, one Abdul Samad Saifi was thrashed by a group of people which included Parvesh Gurjar, Arif, Aadil, and Mushahid.
They circulated a muted video of the incident claiming Saifi was thrashed for not chanting Jai Shri Ram. Later, another video emerged in which Saifi claimed he was thrashed for not chanting Jai Shri Ram.
On investigation, it was found that the original video of thrashing had no reference to Jai Shri Ram and the second video of Saifi was shot in Samajwadi Party leader Umed Idris’ house.
The FIR notes that the booked individuals and organizations have a huge following among the masses and so they have some responsibility for spreading fake news.
It also notes that the communal twist to the incident was given with an intention to create discord amongst the communities in society.
Quoting the tweet of propagandist Zubair, Shalabh Mani Tripathi, Information adviser to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, tweeted, “फिलहाल @Uppolice पता तलाश रही,पहले अपना पता बताओ,ये खेल अब अब नहीं चलेगा कि ‘दंगाई अफवाह’ फैलाओ,मकसद पूरा होते चुपके से ट्विट डिलीट कर रफूचक्कर हो जाओ,कुंठितों और एजेंडाबाजों की जमात ये खेल लगातार खेलती रही,हर झूठ की मोटी कीमत है और हर एजेंडे का खास मक़सद -साजिश,झूठ,नफरत,गुनाह.”
(UP Police are searching your residence. Your game of spreading fake news for causing trouble and deleting it later will not work anymore.).
On many previous occasions too, he has been caught spreading lies and fake news.
