Two nabbed for circulating 'fake news'

KOLKATA: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) nabbed two youths from Sonarpur in South 24-Parganas and Deganga in North 24-Parganas for spreading fake news.

According to sources, the state police had marked two fake posts on social media on Thursday. The accused were allegedly circulating an old image of violence, which had occurred during Ram Navami in 2018, claiming the same to be of post poll violence in Bengal. They allegedly spread photos of an incident that took place in Bangladesh, calling the same as post poll violence scenes in the state.

After marking those posts as fake, CID registered two separate cases and started a probe. During investigation, cops identified the accused as Akash Mondal of Deganga and Arghya Saha of Sonarpur. While Mondal is a student of engineering, Saha is a student of ITI. Mondal is a BJP supporter and Saha an ABVP member.

Cops traced the duo by tracking the Internet Protocol (IP) address of their devices. After detaining Mondal, police learnt that he was using a fake social media profile to circulate fake news. Police seized their mobile phones.

Both were produced before Alipore court and remanded in police custody.

Kolkata Police have already started a case in connection with the BJP's fake post using a picture of a journalist.