The Tripura Police arrested a freelance journalist and a constable on Sunday for sharing a Facebook post claiming that Chief Minister Biplab Deb’s wife had filed for divorce, PTI reported. They will be produced in court on Monday.
The constable, Jamal Hussein, was arrested on Sunday afternoon for sharing the Facebook post, The Indian Express reported, quoting Inspector General of Police Puneet Rastogi. Saikat Talapatra, the journalist, was arrested in the evening.
Anupam Paul, the person whose Facebook post they shared, was booked on Friday and remains on the run. Paul was booked for defamation and criminal conspiracy after he was found allegedly running a fake campaign on social media about the divorce suit.
In an angry post on Facebook on Friday, Niti Deb, the chief minister’s wife, denied the rumours of the divorce. The chief minister has described the rumours as a “deep rooted conspiracy” to tarnish his image, PTI reported.
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.
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