Two workers of the Aam Aadmi Party and one of the Indian National Students’ Organisation were on Saturday arrested by the police in Haryana for allegedly spreading ‘fake news’ about Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Haryana Director General of Police B.S. Sandhu said three persons, one each in Gurugram, Hansi and Sirsa, were arrested on Saturday for posting the fake news about Mr. Khattar on social media platforms.
Newspaper clipping
The accused had allegedly shared a fake newspaper clipping in which Mr. Khattar was quoted as saying he was the Chief Minister of Punjabis alone and had nothing to do with other castes.
Sanjeev Jakhar, a member of the Jannayak Janata Party students’ wing INSO, was arrested by the Gurugram police under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and race etc.) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66 (computer-related offences) of the Information Technology Act, a police statement said.
The action was taken on the basis of a complaint by the “state IT Head BJP, Haryana”, according to the statement.
Social media heads
In addition, an Aam Aadmi Party worker, Harpal Kranti, was arrested in Hansi on similar charges. Mr. Kranti is the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency social media head of the party.
Another AAP worker, Tarsem, the party’s Kalanwali Assembly constituency social media head, was arrested in Sirsa, the police said.
The AAP hit back at the BJP government of Haryana with party national convener Arvind Kejriwal claiming at the meeting of AAP’s national council here that “about 35-40” party workers had been arrested.
“Khattar sahab himself went to Karnal during recent municipal elections and said ‘I’m a Punjabi, Punjabis should vote for me’, but then our people get arrested,” said Mr. Kejriwal.
Speaking to reporters outside the national council meeting, AAP Haryana convener Naveen Jaihind said the police had arrested the AAP workers overnight.
“They [police] asked them [the accused] why they posted this on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp... BJP is the mastermind of fake news,” he said.
