New Delhi: Karnataka Police have filed a first information report against Bharatiya Janata Party’s head of the ‘IT cell’, Amit Malviya, over a video he posted on Twitter about Congress’s Rahul Gandhi.
The police in Karnataka is under the recently elected Congress government. The FIR was filed on the basis of a complaint written by Karnataka Congress leader Ramesh Babu.
The video Malviya posted on June 17 with the caption “Rahul Gandhi is dangerous and playing an insidious game…” has animated depictions of a person who wants to “stop Modi at any cost” and takes Gandhi’s help in the matter. The video appears to spoof Rahul Gandhi’s speeches and claims that he is being used by foreign forces who wish to break India.
NDTV has reported that in another tweet, the BJP leader shared an animated video that allegedly features altered versions of Gandhi’s speeches.
Indian Express has reported that Malviya has been booked under sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 505-2 (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Congress leaders Priyank Kharge and Babu had filed a complaint against Malviya, BJP national president J.P. Nadda and BJP Chandigarh chief Arun Sood on behalf of the Congress party on June 19, saying that Rahul Gandhi had been “made a target of a malicious and false 3D animated video”.
Kharge is Karnataka’s information technology minister.
The video was made with the intent of tarnishing not just Rahul Gandhi and the Congress’s image but also to “instigate communal discord, and misrepresent the party and its leaders’ persona,” the complaint said.
In 2020, Malviya’s tweet – attempting to prove that Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that a farmer had received baton blows from members of the security forces was false – had been flagged as “manipulated media” by Twitter.