The Tripura Police said on Friday that they have filed a first information report against a person identified as Anupam Paul for allegedly running a fake campaign on social media that Chief Minister Biplab Deb’s wife Niti has filed for divorce.
“A case was lodged under charges of defamation, and criminal conspiracy. He is not arrested yet,” Subrata Chakrabarty, the officer in charge of the West Agartala police station, said according to the Hindustan Times. The police have not yet arrested Paul.
Tripura Deputy Inspector General of Police Arindam Nath told The Indian Express that Paul was not present at his home when the police arrived there.
Niti Deb denied the rumour of her divorce in an angry post on Facebook. “Rumors have no mouth, only dirty, filthy and sick minds generate for cheap publicity and mileage, and importantly when paid high for spreading such dirty rumors to gain political advantage against influential people,” she wrote. Niti Deb said the people who spread rumours of her divorce used “fake evidence, fake stories and pics”. She also asked people to boycott those who spread rumours.
Advocate Ashwani Jha, whose name was mentioned in the document shared on social media, told The Indian Express that it was about a divorce suit filed by a man residing in Delhi, and had nothing to with Biplab Deb. “Any report based on this is fake news,” he added.
Paul was named in an FIR last year for purportedly terming former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar a “thief” and a “beggar” on social media. He had also allegedly photoshopped images of Sarkar, former state Congress President Birajit Sinha and Rose Valley Group Chairperson Goutam Kundu.
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