“Purely overreach,” says Opposition on arrest of man who posted fake news of Parrikar's death

The Opposition parties on Thursday criticised the BJP-led coalition government and the State police for arresting a person on Wednesday, for wrongly posting on Facebook that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar,who is currently undergoing medical treatment in the United States, “is no more”.

All India Congress Committee Secretary Girish Chodankar told press persons here that while the post uploaded by Kenneth Silveira on Facebook was "not right", arresting him for the same was "purely over-reach" by the Crime Branch of the Goa police.

"This is nothing but intimidation. Silveira was not right in putting up that post. But in the absence of a regular medical bulletin on the health of the Chief Minister, there is bound to be speculations," said Mr. Chodankar, spokesperson of the State Congress party.

He also said that the arrest only exposed the government's "dictatorial tendencies".

However, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Shantaram Naik declined to comment on the arrest when contacted by The Hindu.

The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), Goa also condemned the arrested of Silveira.

"Last year, a sadhvi at a public meeting in Goa had said that those who eat beef should be hung in a public square. The police did not arrest her. Neither did the government move. Here one Facebook message results in immediate arrest. This is downright unfair," AAP's Goa general secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar said.

Silveira was arrested under section 505 of the Indian Penal Code (circulation of fake information to cause public alarm) late on Wednesday. On Tuesday, he had uploaded a post on Facebook which read: "Just got news that Parrikar is no more".

The police said he was arrested as he was not cooperating with the investigation.

In subsequent messages on his Facebook wall, Silveira accepted that his message was incorrect after visitors on his wall informed him of the blunder, but did not delete the fake message from his wall.