The Gujarat police on Tuesday said they have arrested a Congress leader and an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) functionary for allegedly sharing Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s deep fake video, in which he is purportedly seen announcing the curtailment of reservation rights of the SCs, STs and OBCs.
The arrest comes a day after Delhi Police initiated a probe and summoned several persons including Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy for questioning in the case. A few arrests have already been made in this case as Mumbai police too registered FIRs against the Maharashtra Youth Congress social media platform and 16 others. Police in other BJP-ruled States also swung into action making the first arrest in Assam in connection with the case on Sunday.
In his first reactions pertaining to the matter, Home Minister Amit Shah said the Congress’ frustration and disappointment have reached such a level that it made and circulated it on social media and even chief ministers and state unit chiefs also forwarded it.
Shah alleged that since leader Rahul Gandhi assumed leadership of the Congress, its level of politics is sinking and the attempt to create confusion and mislead people is condemnable.
“They should contest elections on the basis of their principles, programmes and manifesto and not by circulating a fake video,” he said at a Press conference in Guwahati when asked on the arrest of a Congress functionary of Assam for allegedly circulating a fake video of the BJP leader
The Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell arrested the two persons, including one who was working as the Personal Assistant (PA) of Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani since the last six years. Another has been serving as the AAP’s Dahod district president since the last four years and third belongs to the Dalit community, also serves as the general secretary of Banaskantha district Congress.
The duo was booked under section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The police release said the duo had uploaded the edited video of Amit Shah’s speech with an intention to create enmity between reserved castes and unreserved castes in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “Both of them had shared this edited video of Amit Shah on their Facebook pages. They received this video on their WhatsApp and investigations are still on to nab the person who had edited this video,” said a Gujarat police official.
BJP on Monday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against the Congress, alleging that it circulated a “deep fake and morphed” video of Amit Shah to derail the poll process, and demanded strict action against the party. The Special Cell of the Delhi Police had on Sunday registered an FIR after the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which is under the Ministry of Home Affairs, filed a complaint about the doctored video of Shah where his statements indicating a commitment to abolish quota for Muslims on religious ground in Telangana were changed to make it seem that he was advocating scrapping of all reservations.
Congress claimed that the Delhi Police’s summons to Revanth Reddy is yet another “nail in the coffin of free and fair elections”, and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi is afraid that the CM will “torpedo” his party’s prospects.
Ahead of the prime minister’s rallies in Telangana, Ramesh said why does the PM fear Chief Minister Revanth Reddy?” Where are the Central funds that had been promised to Telangana? Will the BJP ever establish the National Turmeric Board in Nizamabad?,” Ramesh sought to know.
