kolkata

Updated: Jul 13, 2017 14:59 IST

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested secretary of BJP IT cell Tarun Sengupta from Asansol for allegedly posting ‘fake’ images and video on social media that contain communally sensitive material. Sengupta is the third person to face action since Sunday on similar charges.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has lashed out at the BJP for floating misleading and fake pictures on social media with an eye on triggering communal violence.

Read: Delhi BJP leader accused of posting Gujarat riot photos as those of Basirhat violence

During the week, FIRs were lodged in Kolkata against a BJP spokesperson in Delhi. Police also arrested a man from Sonarpur for posting ‘fake’ pictures claiming those to be taken in Basirhat that was rocked by communal violence last week.

Two FIRs were registered in Kolkata against Nupur Sharma, a BJP spokesperson in Delhi, for sharing on social media a photo of the 2002 Gujarat riots and claiming it to represent the communal violence in West Bengal’s Basirhat last week. ( HT Photo )

Non-bailable sections of IPC were slapped against Sengupta in Suri police station of Birbhum district. He will be produced in Suri court on Wednesday. According to CID sources, Sengupta posted a video a few weeks ago. He was arrested from Hirapur in Asansol.

“The people of Bengal will not tolerate the fact that BJP is using social media platforms by posting fake pictures and fake news to meet their political ends,” Mamata Banerjee said while addressing a public meeting in East Midnapore district on Monday.

Read: Darjeeling locals throng Nepal, Bhutan to beat Internet ban

On the same day, Kolkata Police registered two non-bailable cases against Nupur Sharma, a BJP spokesperson in Delhi, for sharing on social media a photo of the 2002 Gujarat riots and claiming it to be an image captured during the communal violence at West Bengal’s Basirhat last week.

A Trinamool Congress party office that was vandalised in Basirhat last week. The flare-up in Basirhat was triggered by a blasphemous picture that was posted on social media by a class 11 student. ( HT Photo )

The cases were registered at Gariahat and Regent Park police stations under five sections of the Indian Penal Code.

On Sunday, a Hindu man was arrested from Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district by the Cyber Crime Cell of Kolkata Police for posting a still photo from a Bhojpuri movie and passing it off as one captured in Baduria near Basirhat in North 24 Parganas. The photo showed a group of men (actually actors) trying to molest a woman (an actress). This photo, too, was shared by several BJP leaders.

Mamata Banerjee has already announced that a judicial inquiry headed by a retired judge of the Calcutta high court will be conducted to find how the communal flare-up in Basirhat was instigated.

“The purpose of this inquiry is to identify those who instigated the violence and spread fake news on social media, using clippings and stills from a movie and of violence that took place in other places, even Comilla in Bangladesh,” the chief minister said.