Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mumbai spokesperson Suresh Nakhua, who tweeted a video showing a man who was alive being taken to a crematorium allegedly by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), was arrested on Thursday by Bhoiwada police and later released on bail.
According to Bhoiwada police, Nakhua had uploaded a video on his Twitter account on Tuesday, which purportedly showed a man being taken to a crematorium in an ambulance covered in a PPE kit.
Nakhua had tweeted the video saying, "This is beyond shocking. A LIVING man taken to cremation centre by BMC. I think there might be some #MahaVasuliTarget from cremation centres by #MahaVasuliAghadi govt."
Following the tweet, the civic body and the state government and the state government had to face a lot of criticism on social media since the tweet went viral.
BMC officials said that they asked Nakhua to give details of the video from the official Twitter handle of BMC, but Nakhua did not give any details. BMC officials then approached the Bhoiwada police with the complaint against Nakhua stating that no such incident had taken place in Mumbai, and the video could be from different place.
Iqbal Singh Chahal, BMC commissioner told the Free Press Journal, that video in circulation on social media is not only fake but is an attempt to tarnish Mumbai civic body's image and spread panic among Mumbaikars. "We have been working day and night to not just keep the deadly coronavirus at bay but we are also putting efforts to streamline the protocol while dealing with patients and prevent chaos. The said video is not from Mumbai, it is fake. It is an attempt to tarnish our image however we will not tolerate this. An FIR has been registered and action will be taken against the culprit. This is also a warning to all those people who want to create panic and chaos in the city." Chahal said
Bhoiwada police then issued notice to Nakhua on Wednesday, and summoned him to the police station for recording his statement on Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, Nakhua had tweeted that "It seems after targetting Sameet Thakkar and Sunaina Holey, Maharashtra government is after me. In last 24 hours they have deployed BMC JMC, DMC, Medical Officers, Police Insps of Bhoiwada, Sakinaka police stns to question me. I am here and going nowhere.”
Nakhua was placed under arrest on Thursday and later granted bail. Nakhua then in another tweet on Thursday apologised on Twitter stating, "I had uploaded a video on 20/04/2021 showing a living man being taken to crematorium. I was not aware of the location of the incident and could not verify it. This video was tweeted as it disturbed me immensely & to alert the authorities. @mybmc @CPMumbaiPolice ," and said he did not intent to cause panic among public.
Nakhua was booked under IPC sections 505 (1)(b) (punishes those who intend to cause or likely to cause fear or alarm among the public, or any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity ) and section 500 (defamation)and section 54 of the National Disaster Management Act was registered against him on Wednesday.