Man booked for ‘bid to cause riots’ ahead of Donald Trump's Ahmedabad visit

AHMEDABAD: Crime branch officials on Thursday said they had arrested a man for allegedly posting a video showing a few hawkers’ carts being demolished by a JCB machine and alleged that poor people’s lives had become miserable ahead of US president Donald Trump’s visit to Ahmedabad.
City crime branch in a statement said that the Vinod Thakor, 31, a resident of Shankheswar in Patan district and the president of the Congress social media cell in Patan had tried to instigate people ahead of Trump’s visit on February 24. The statement says officials of crime branch and cyber cell were keeping tabs on social media posts ahead of Trump’s visit.
A PSI of the wireless cell, H N Prajapati, on February 9 saw the post by Thakor. Thakor had written: “As the US president is coming to Ahmedabad, the BJP government is ruining the lives of poor people.” Thakor had shared a video showing purported workers breaking carts with vegetables and fruits on them with a JCB.
The crime branch statement claims Thakor had instigated people by attributing the video to Gujarat even though it was from Odisha. Prahapati then filed a complaint with city crime branch under IPC Sections 153 (provocative statements with intent to cause riots) and 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace).
The statement says Thakor was arrested from his house at Khodiyarnagar Society in Shankheswar town of Patan district late on Wednesday night. Crime branch officials did not clarify how Thakor was booked for attempting to cause riots over the wrongly attributed video. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation commissioner Vijay Nehra had on February 17 tweeted a clarification about the video, stating that it was not from the city and but from Odisha, while citing a report by a fact-check portal.