Filmmaker Avinash Das arrested by Gujarat police

Filmmaker Avinash Das was arrested by Ahmedabad police on Wednesday for allegedly insulting the Tricolour and spreading fake news in social media posts, said senior officers familiar with the case.

Filmmaker Avinash Das was arrested by Ahmedabad police on Wednesday for allegedly insulting the Tricolour and spreading fake news in social media posts, said senior officers familiar with the case.

Filmmaker Avinash Das was arrested by Ahmedabad police on Wednesday. (PTI)

According to Ahmedabad police, Das had posted a photo of a woman wearing the national flag on his social media accounts. He was booked on May 14 under provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and the Information Technology Act based on a complaint by police sub-inspector K P Patel, who is stationed with the wireless service branch of Ahmedabad crime branch.

A team of the crime branch detained the filmmaker from his residence in Mumbai on Tuesday and brought him to the city in the early hours of Wednesday.

He was presented before a local court and police sought a seven-day remand, however, the court has granted remand of one day, a senior police officer said, asking not to be named.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime branch),Chaitanya Mandalik, told reporters that during the primary investigation, they came across several fake and misleading posts by Das, including one that allegedly hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community.

“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,” Mandalik said.

“In the past, he had posted a picture on social media where people were lying on ground during the Covid-19 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 post Mandalik was referring to was a Hindi poem Das had tweeted, naming Hindu gods.

“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 organisation in causing dispute between two groups,” said a Gujarat Police statement.

Das is credited for directing Swara Bhasker-starrer ‘Anaarkali of Aarah’. His body of work also includes Netflix series ‘She’ and the film ‘Raat Baaki Hai’.

The crime branch had also registered an FIR against Das under Section 469 of the Indian Penal Code for forgery to harm the reputation of a person in June. The Gujarat high court recently rejected Das’s pre-arrest bail for this case, following which, he had moved the Supreme Court, where the matter is pending for July 22.