Bihar migrants in TN: UP BJP spokesperson moves Delhi HC for pre-arrest bail
The Tamil Nadu police have registered a case against Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson Prashant Kumar Umrao for allegedly spreading fake news about migrant workers from Bihar being killed in the south Indian state
Lawyer and Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Prashant Patel Umrao has moved the Delhi high court seeking transit pre-arrest bail, apprehending arrest by the Tamil Nadu police in a case registered against him for allegedly spreading fake news about migrant workers from Bihar being killed in the south Indian state.
Umrao had put out a tweet saying that “12 migrants from Bihar were hung to death in Tamil Nadu for speaking in Hindi”. Sharing a photo of Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav with Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, he said that despite the attacks on migrants, Yadav attended the birthday celebrations of Stalin. The tweet has since been deleted.
In Bihar, images of workers returning from southern states for Holi were being circulated with misleading message of mass exodus. In the past few days, purported videos of workers being beaten circulated on social media were found to be fake and from other states.
The Tamil Nadu police on Saturday registered a first information report (FIR) against Umrao and a Twitter user Mohammed Tanvir, whose profile described him as a journalist, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for disinformation and claiming that migrant workers have been fatally attacked in Tamil Nadu.
Stalin rejected allegations of targeted violence on migrant workers in the state and warned of swift action against rumour-mongers spreading panics. He also spoke to his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar on Saturday and assured that the migrant labourers in the state are safe. High-level teams of officials from Bihar and Jharkhand visited Tamil Nadu on Sunday and advised people not to pay heed to rumours and fake videos.
The Thoothukudi Central police registered a case against Umrao for spreading wrong information, under IPC sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A, 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief). The Tamil Nadu police have also charged Umrao for creating enmity between the people on the basis of region and language.
Apprehending arrest, Umrao, through his counsel Kushal Kumar, has contended that though he intends to take his legal remedies before the courts in Tamil Nadu, he feels that he would be arrested by the state police even before that.
“In the event the applicant is arrested without any reasonable opportunity to avail his legal remedies owing to his resident in Delhi, the distance and various other factors including the requirement and time to look for and engage a counsel in Tamil Nadu, the right to liberty of the applicant guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution would stand violated at the hands of Respondent no. 1,” the petition said.
In his plea, Umrao has said that none of the provisions under which the subject FIR has been registered against him are not even prima facie attracted to the facts of the present case and he is merely being made a scapegoat.
“The applicant is a victim of political rivalry as he is associated with a different political party, “ the petition has said.
It has further said that the FIR has been wrongly registered against him in response to certain tweets which he had posted on the social media platform Twitter based upon the news covered by national news agencies.
The matter has been listed for Tuesday.