CID makes 1st arrests for fake news; FIR against Kangana

Kolkata: Cops have made the first arrests for the fake posts on violence in Bengal that have flooded social media since the announcement of the assembly poll results on May 2.
The arrests by the CID’s cyber cell happened on Friday, a day after an FIR was registered against actor Kangana Ranaut at Ultadanga police station for her hate comments on social media, including one alleging “Hindu genocide” in the state.Kolkata Police’s cyber cell had earlier lodged two complaints against her but none of them was converted into an FIR, officials said. Twitter permanently suspended Ranaut’s account earlier this week.
City police cyber cell officials registered a separate case — its third since the poll results — against the fake news on the state BJP’s social media pages that initially tried to pass off Delhi-based journalist Abhro Banerjee as a Sitalkuchi “martyr”. The post — and Banerjee’s social media response that he was “(still) alive... and hale and hearty” — went viral, prompting the BJP to clarify several hours later that his image was “erroneously included” in a video. City cops on Friday said the case “did not appear to be so simple”.
Akash Mandal was allegedly uploading fake videos on social media and Arghya Sarkar, also in his 20s, was an information technology student, officials said.
“We lodged two separate FIRs on Monday for intentional insult, breach of peace, public mischief and criminal conspiracy. We contacted Facebook and Twitter and nabbed the accused with their help. We have sought similar help in several other cases,” Mukherjee said. “Initial investigations indicate Mandal was using a fake profile to post fake posts on Facebook. We want to know whether he was operating alone or was part of a group,” an investigator said.
The city police also sent legal notices to six social media users to record their statements on specific allegations against them for spreading fake news. Officials did not divulge the identity of those summoned or their political affiliations.
KP and CID continued to flag fake posts all through Friday, an exercise that they began on Monday. Among the flagged videos and posts were old images of violence from protests in Bangladesh, Odisha’s Bhadrak and Bengal’s Raniganj. “A few genuine suicides are also being passed off as murders,” read another alert by East Burdwan police.
Citizens could report fake news to cops by Twitter or email or phone, KP joint commissioner of police (crime) Murlidhar Sharma said.
The CID has also launched a special helpline number (033-24506124) to report fake news.