The Crime Branch of the Goa Police on Wednesday arrested 35-year-old Kenneth Silveira, a resident of Vasco in South Goa for for putting up a fake news on Facebook on Tuesday, which claimed that ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar undergoing treatment in US, was "no more".
"He has been arrested under Section 505 of the Indian Penal Code and will be produced before a Judicial Magistrate on Thursday seeking remand. We arrested him as we found that he was not cooperating with the investigation," Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) Karthik Kashyap told The Hindu on Wednesday evening.
Section 505 of the IPC deals with circulation of fake messages to cause public alarm.
Silveira's Facebook post read: "Just got news that Parrikar is no more". In subsequent messages on his Facebook wall, Silveira has accepted that his message was incorrect after many others on his wall informed him of the folly, but did not delete the 'fake' message from his wall.
Mr. Parrikar was moved to a New York hospital last month, a few weeks after he was first hospitalised on February 15 in Goa, when he complained of sharp stomach pain. The Chief Minister's Office has maintained that Mr. Parrikar suffers from "mild pancreatitis", but the State government has refused to issue a regular medical bulletin, despite demands from the Opposition.
