Economic Offence Unit (EOU) of Bihar police has tightened the noose to catch the mastermind Manish Kashyap who created the panic by spreading fake videos on social media about Bihari migrants being allegedly attacked in Tamil Nadu.
EOU is continuously conducting raids at all possible locations in Bihar and other states of North India to catch the mastermind. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) opposition in Bihar has made it a big issue by portraying Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as anti-Bihari alleging that when the migrants’ workers were being beaten up in Tamil Nadu, the RJD leader Tejashwi was cutting the cake of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on his birthday.
There was a big uproar over the issue in the ongoing budget session of Bihar assembly and opposition had walked out from the house when speaker Awadh Bihari Choudhary had rejected their demand of special debate on the issue.
After investigation by EOU, it has come to the fore that most of the videos circulated on social media were fabricated and fake. In fact, one of the videos in which Bihari migrants were shown with injury on the forehead was shot in Bengali Colony of Jakkanpur locality in Patna. The shooting of the video took place on March 6 and posted on social media on March 8.
The fake video had created panic among the Bihari migrant workers in Tamil Nadu and many of them had started returning to Bihar leaving their work in the southern state.
While speaking to The Hindu, EOU’s superintendent of police Sushil Kumar said, “Investigation is underway in all the cases we have registered the FIRs. We are trying to catch those elements who have played the role of larger conspirator and Manish Kashyap is the mastermind in this case. Apart from it we have also identified 26 other links which were posted on social media. We will ask them as well and ask why they posted such videos on their social media account. If any one of them would be found doing it intentionally they too would be booked. Altogether three cases have been lodged in which nine people have been booked. However, one person is Manish Kashyap, his name is there in all three cases. So far, three have been arrested.”
The names of the arrested persons are Aman Kumar, Rakesh Tiwari and Rakesh Ranjan Kumar.
Mr. Sushil further said, “We are also investigating who are people supporting Manish Kashyap, I mean to say who has given him back up to do such things. We are continuously conducting raids to arrest him and I must assure you that he will be arrested soon. Several videos were made by these people to spread rumours of different duration lasting from 2 to 3 minutes. This case would be a lesson for those people who are involved in such activities and in days to come, nobody will dare to repeat it.”
In one of the videos, Mr. Kashyap in fact challenged CM Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as well. He went on to say that he will ensure that Mr. Tejashwi does not become the CM of Bihar. He levelled serious charges against the Deputy CM.
Ever since, it has been found that videos are fake, even the opposition leaders in Bihar have stopped talking and issuing statements on this episode. It became more substantial when a four-member committee visited Tamil Nadu and submitted the report to the Chief Minister’s Office on March 11 stressing that most of the videos were fake and motivated.
A fresh FIR was lodged against Mr.Kashyap on March 12 under Sections 153 (b)/504/505(1) (b)/505(1) (c)/468/471/120 B of the IPC and 66/66 (d)/74 of the IT Act 2000.
