Mumbai Cyber Police arrested a Delhi-based lawyer for posting videos in which he proposed the theory that celebrity manager Disha Salian (28) was the victim of ganglia and murders by some celebrities and a Maharashtrian politician. Salian was the celebrity manager of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The arrest is the latest example of a pushback against the growing wave of fake news and toxic messages on social media platforms.
A police investigation showed that Salian died by suicide on June 9 in a Malad skyscraper where her fiancé resided. Suspect Vibhor Anand, 31, who continued to post libelous content despite warnings from a city court, was picked up from his Delhi home and taken to Mumbai on Thursday evening and brought before the Esplanade Court for the day. following.
The court sent Vibhor into police custody until October 19 after he was booked under sections 500 (defamation), 501 (printed or recorded material known to be defamatory), 504 (insult), 505 (2) (mischief), 509 (insult). the modesty of any woman) and under section 67 of the TI Act (posting or transmission of obscene material).
Vibhor’s Twitter account @vibhor_anand was blocked and suspended in September, said Akbar Pathan, DCP (crime). Changed to another handle. Hours before his arrest, Vibhor tweeted from @OfficeofVA, “The Mumbai Police Cybercrime Team is in Delhi to meet with me. Today is October 15. So the Mumbai police are finally here to arrest me… See you soon @CPMumbaiPolice ”.
His lawyer Hitesh Patel said: “The FIR is politically motivated, my client has just expressed his opinions.”
At least 14 other people who posted similar content, including photos and videos via Twitter, have been listed as wanted in the case. The complaint that led to the arrest was filed by a 27-year-old lawyer from Mumbai on August 12. He found the content with links to videos that were tweeted, attacking well-known figures, the police and the Maharashtra government.
Vibhor allegedly continued to circulate such content despite Bombay Civil Court in September ordering him and the others to immediately remove the defamatory posts. The order came in a lawsuit from an actor-producer (whose name was dragged into the Salian case). Despite the order, Vibhor kept naming the actor.
Cyber police had similarly arrested a Faridabad fitness trainer, Pradeep Choudhary alias Saahil (33), on September 28 for publishing conspiracy theories based on an investigation he claims to have carried out into the death of the late actor. Sushant singh and his former celebrity manager Salian. Choudhary was tracked through the internet protocol address used to upload the offending content to YouTube. The case was registered on August 22.
In recent months, the state cyber police have mounted a pushback against the torrent of Hate speech, fake news and degrading messages about public figures on social media. The traction gained by toxic messages and conspiracy theories in the wake of Sushant Singh’s suicide has led to increased oversight of social media platforms. Some YouTube channels about the incident have attracted millions of views.
As TOI reported on September 28, the cyber police in Maharashtra blocked at least 4,617 posts on platforms including WhatsApp and Facebook since fake news started flooding the network after the shutdown announced at the end of March. In total, 644 cases have been reported in 44 stations.
Cyber Attorney, Dr. Prashant Mali He said the IT Act of 2000 should be amended with immediate effect and should include a section explicitly dealing with fake news. “At present, there is no specific section that severely deals with the increasing cases of fake news combined with offensive videos and content uploaded to create community tension or spread hatred,” he said.
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