Three individuals—Auzef Tirmizi, Iqbal Ahmed Gotiwala, and Junaid Nilgar—have been arrested on Jan 17 in Karnavati (Ahmedabad), Gujarat for spreading misinformation about stone pelting in Gupta Nagar locality through social media channels.
The arrests were made after the Gujarat Police’s Cyber Crime Branch unit received reports of misleading messages circulating on WhatsApp claiming stone-pelting in the Vasana area.
Following a late-night police response to the reported incident, it was determined that the claims were false. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against unidentified individuals for spreading rumors. The Cyber Crime Branch, after an investigation, identified and apprehended the three accused who knowingly forwarded the false information in various WhatsApp groups.
The accused—Auzef Tirmizi, Iqbal Ahmed Gotiwala, and Junaid Nilgar—reside in the Jamalpur area. They now face charges under Section 505(1)(b) of the Indian Penal Code related to circulating false information with the intent to cause fear or alarm to the public.
As per GSTV.in, Tirmizi is a journalist while the other two are salesmen.
Indeed, the repercussions of disseminating false information are significant, with the potential to incite fear or alarm in the public, creating fertile ground for communal tensions.
