Filmmaker Avinash Das detained for tweeting Amit Shah’s pic with arrested IAS officer

A Mumbai police officer said Das was apprehended by a team of Ahmedabad crime branch at around 1.00 pm in Madh jetty, as he got out of his house.

Mumbai: The Gujarat police on Tuesday detained filmmaker Avinash Das from the city in a case related to tweeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s old photo with IAS officer Pooja Singhal, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.

Avinash Das (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

A Mumbai police officer said Das was apprehended by a team of Ahmedabad crime branch at around 1.00 pm in Madh jetty, as he got out of his house. A waiting team of the Gujarat police stopped his car and apprehended Das. He was then taken to Ahmedabad, where a First Information Report is registered against him.

The Ahmedabad crime branch had last month registered the FIR, booking Das under Section 469 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code as well as provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and the Information Technology Act, as he had also posted on his Instagram and Facebook accounts another photo of a woman wearing the national flag.

After registration of the offence, Das moved the Bombay high court for transit anticipatory bail, but withdrew his pre-arrest bail plea, after noticing that the court was not inclined to grant him the relief.

The filmmaker, known for 2017 film ‘Anaarkali of Aarah’, had thereafter moved the local sessions court in Ahmedabad and the Gujrat high court for pre-arrest bail and even offered to tender an apology for his social media posts, including one where a woman is wearing the national flag, but did not get any reprieve from the courts.

Pooja Singhal, a 2000-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was arrested by ED in May this year in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged embezzlement of MGNREGA funds in the Khunti district of the state and other charges.

The agency on May 6 this year conducted raids at various locations across four states in connection with the case and recovered ₹17.49 crore from the residence of Suman Kumar, a chartered accountant associated with Singhal and her husband.