3 held for spreading rumours

Staff Reporter :

Three persons were arrested by a joint team of Sadar police and Cyber Cell for creating fake audio clip stating 59 positive cases of coronavirus existing in the city. One of the accused had created the clip only to panic his wife and sisters-in-law so that they would not travel out from their homes, said police. The accused have been identified as Jai alias Monu Omprakash Gupta (37), a resident of IF 3, Amar Vihar Society, Kamptee Road, Kapil Nagar; Amit Shivpal Pardhi (38), a resident of 44 (c), Misal Layout, Jaripatka and Divyanshu Ramvilas Mishra (33), a resident of Plot No 87, First Floor, Suyog Nagr, Ajni. The audio clip went viral on almost all groups of WhatsApp in city which created panic among the citizens and spread distrust about the administration, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Joint CP) Ravindra Kadam. Gupta is an MBA graduate and working at Khushi Motors. He is also partner in Rosetta Club in Ajni area.

Pardhi, who is a Mechanical Engineer, is close friend of Gupta. Mishra is a computer engineer and is working as Finance Manager at a reputed company in Delhi. He was staying at the place of his father-in-law in Suyog Nagar for delivery of his wife - Priya Oza - for last few months. In their statement to police, they said that Gupta and Pardhi had created the audio clip during a telephonic conversation and forwarded it to Mishra on March 23. Mishra sent the clip to his wife to panic her so that she would not go out from the house. However, Mishra’s wife had forwarded it to her female friend to alert her who put it on a WhatsApp group and the clip went viral.

An offence under Sections 188, 120 (b), 505 (a) (b) of Indian Penal Code read with Section 54 of Disaster Management Act was registered at Sadar police on March 24. During investigation, the police traced back the phone number from which the audio clip was forwarded and reached to Mishra’s wife. After receiving phone call from the police, the accused had reportedly deleted the clip. But they have confessed for the crime during police interrogation. The three accused were arrested by police. The total of 400 mobile numbers were checked by the police within 24 hours. The arrest was made by DCP Shweta Khedkar, ACP Sadar Rekha Nawre, PI Mahesh Bansode, PI Mr. Jagtap of Cyber Cell, APIs Vishal Mane, Keshav Wagh, Vilas Mote and staff incljding Vinod Tiwari, Vijendra Yadav, Sudhir Madavi, Sayyad Ali and others have made the arrest.