The Central Crime Branch (CCB) on Friday arrested a software engineer who was employed with Infosys for allegedly putting up a post on social media encouraging people to spread the novel coronavirus .
In his tweet, the accused, Mujeeb Mohammad, 40, wrote, “Let’s join hands, go out and sneeze with an open mouth in public. Spread the virus.”
A CCB official said, “We have arrested the engineer for posting hate messages on social media. He has been booked under the IT Act and under Sections 269 and 270 of the IPC.”
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The post went viral on Thursday. Infosys subsequently ordered an internal probe and terminated his employment. “The social media post by the employee is against Infosys’ code of conduct and its commitment to responsible social sharing. Infosys has a zero-tolerance policy towards such acts and has accordingly terminated the services of the employee,” said the company in a statement.
The CCB have seized Mujeeb’s mobile phone and laptops for further investigation. CCB officials said he admitted to circulating the message. “We are yet to ascertain the reason behind it,” said Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police.
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CCB officials also said that they were concerned about the words “spread the word to end the world” on the profile picture of the accused and that they were probing his antecedents.