The Cyber Crime Police of Cyberabad on Monday registered a criminal case against Major Neelam Singh (Retd) for allegedly creating and posting a fake news article claiming that the Cyberabad police had banned the sale of oranges in an effort to appease the Muslim community.
The Twitter account holder, known as “theskindoctor13”, created the false news article by morphing a Deccan Chronicle article and changing the headline to ‘Cyberabad Police Bans the Sale of Oranges in the City,” while attaching an edited photo with the senior police officers of Cyberabad Commissionerate, the police said.
He also created a fake news story to say that the Cyberabad police had banned the display, sale and consumption of oranges in the city to boost secularism, as the saffron colour of oranges was hurting the sentiments of the Muslims.
The account “theskindoctor13” is owned by Major Neelam Singh (Retd), a dermatologist practising with a clinic in Chandigarh, Punjab. A screenshot of the satire news item being shared on Twitter shows a satire disclaimer in the bottom part of the image, however it is unclear if this was the image first shared by the account.
The morphed image that was tweeted
The Cyberabad police observed that the post made by Neelam was likely to promote enmity between different religions and could have caused a disruption to communal harmony.
The Cyberabad police have booked Neelam under sections 153A (Promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 505 (Intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides Section 66C of IT Act 2000 (Punishment for identity theft).
The Cyberabad police have urged citizens to refrain from posting fake and objectionable posts. The police also requested citizens to not believe such types of fake posts, unless it is confirmed by the authorities concerned.
Neelam, on the other hand, has referred to his post as, "A satire they perceived as fake news despite disclaimer.”
K Karuna Sagar, a practising advocate and president of Hindu Sanghatan, has come forward to argue the case registered against Neelam.
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