A’bad man arrested for linking unrelated video to atrocity case

Rajkot: Amreli police have arrested a 62-year-old resident of Maninagar in Ahmedabad, Yashvant Makwana, for allegedly linking an unrelated video to an atrocity case on social media.
The video claimed to depict an atrocity committed against two members of a Dalit family in Khambha during Ganesha immersion a few days ago.
On Sep 17, an offence was registered against Lala Shiyal and Jaysukh Sankhat under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Scheduled Cases and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at Khambha police station.
The complaint stated that Lalit Vala and his uncle Manu Vala were bathing in the Raydi reservoir when the accused and others arrived for immersion of a Ganesha idol. When the victims asked them to wait, the accused insulted them with casteist abuse and assaulted them.
Amreli police discovered on Friday that the video being circulated in a social media group called "Friend of police", claiming to be related to the offence registered at Khambha police station on Sep 17.
It was accompanied by a message on the prevalence of untouchability. Upon investigation, the police found that the video was not related to the incident at Khambha but was from a Hindi-speaking state.
A statement from the police said, "The accused (by) wrongly showing this video of an incident of Khambha tried to spread anarchy and fear in Amreli district and Gujarat state."
Further investigation revealed that Yashvant Makwana had circulated the video with a description of the offence registered at Khambha police station, despite the video having no connection to the incident.
Police registered an offence against Makwana stating, "The video was circulated with the intention to spread rage among the people of scheduled castes and malign the image of police. He committed this act knowing that this act may result into the violation of tranquillity and circulated the video with the intention of spreading the fake message."