The Kolkata Police on Monday filed a non-bailable case against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s spokesperson in the Capital for trying to pass off a photo from the 2002 Gujarat riots as one depicting the ongoing unrest in West Bengal. A complaint was filed against her at the Gariahat Police Station, according to ABP Ananda News.
Nupur Sharma had shared the image on Twitter on Sunday and called on her followers to join her at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to protest against the “lawlessness and falling value of human life” in the Mamata Banerjee-led state. She had even used the hashtag #SaveHindus, giving the post a communal tone.
Twitter users, however, were quick to point out that the image was from 2002 and not from the violence-hit regions of Basirhat and Baduria in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
On Saturday, the Kolkata Police had arrested a 38-year-old man for sharing an image from a Bhojpuri film on social media, which he had claimed depicted what was truly happening in North 24 Parganas. Social media users and fact-checking websites such as Alt News had pointed out that the still was taken from a Bhojpuri movie Aurat Khilona Nahi, which released in 2014.
Violence had ensued in Basirhat on June 3 after a 17-year-old shared an allegedly derogatory post on Facebook about Prophet Mohammed.
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