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Ahmedabad court sends filmmaker Avinash Das to one-day police remand
Filmmaker Avinash Das was detained in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon and brought to Ahmedabad in the early hours of Wednesday
A local court in Ahmedabad on Wednesday granted one-day police remand of filmmaker Avinash Das for allegedly insulting the Tricolour and spreading fake news.
Das was detained in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon and brought to Ahmedabad where he was arrested at 4am on Wednesday.
The Ahmedabad police told the metropolitan magistrate court that during their primary investigation they have come across many fake and misleading social media posts including one that allegedly hurts the sentiments of the Hindu community and sought seven days’ remand for him.
In a media statement, the Gujarat police said the accused posted another offensive post in Hindi language on his Twitter account that read: “Whiskey se Vishnu mile, rum se mil gaye Ram, brandy se Brahma mile aur desi se Hanuman. Mein kis bottle ka tyag karu? Sab mein baste bhagwan.”
“As per initial investigation, this post seems to hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community. The mental state of the accused is to be examined. Also, investigation is going on if the accused was involved with any other person or organization in causing dispute between two groups,” the statement said.
Avinash is known for directing the Swara Bhasker movie ‘Anaarkali of Aarah’. He has also directed the Netflix series ‘She’ and ZEE5 movie Raat Baaki Hai, among others.
Das had also posted on his Instagram and Facebook accounts a photo of a woman wearing the national flag.
The Ahmedabad crime branch registered a first information report (FIR) against Das under Section 469 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for forgery to harm the reputation of a person. He is also booked under provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and the Information Technology Act for allegedly sharing a “morphed picture of a woman wearing a Tricolour” on a social media platform.
“It is the duty of every Indian citizen to respect our national flag. When we got to know about filmmaker Avinash Das who posted an indecent picture of our national flag in a way as to insult it, our social media team kept a watch...our primary investigation shows that several fake and misleading posts were made from his social media accounts,” Chaitanya Mandalik, deputy commissioner of police, Crime Branch, Ahmedabad City Police told media persons on Wednesday.
He had also posted a picture of Union home minister Amit Shah in a manner to harm his reputation and an FIR was filed in this regard at the DCB (Detection of Crime Branch) police station, he said.
“In the past he had posted a picture on social media where people were lying on ground during the Covid pandemic with the caption ‘somewhere in Gujarat’, but the picture was of some other place. We have also found a post where he has described Hindu Gods and Goddesses in a derogatory way,” said Mandalik.
The Gujarat high court recently rejected Das’ pre-arrest bail, following which he had moved the Supreme Court where the matter is pending for July 22.
