Ahmedabad, July 20, 2022 (PPI-OT):The police in the Indian state of Gujarat detained filmmaker Avinash Das from Mumbai in a case related to sharing on Twitter a photo of Indian Home Minister Amit Shah with arrested officer of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Pooja Singhal.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Ahmedabad crime branch’s Assistant Commissioner of Police D P Chudasama on Tuesday said, “We detained Das from Mumbai on Tuesday. He is being brought to Ahmedabad by our team for further legal process.”
The Ahmedabad crime branch had registered an FIR against the Mumbai-based filmmaker under Section 469 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code as well as provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and the Information Technology Act, for posting on his Instagram and Facebook accounts another photo of a woman wearing the national flag.
The FIR against 46-year-old Das was filed in June after he shared a photo showing Singhal, who had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, whispering something to Amit Shah.
As per the FIR, in a caption to the photo Das had claimed the picture was taken a few days before Singhal’s arrest, while it was actually taken in 2017. The crime branch had alleged this was done with an intention to tarnish Amit Shah’s image.
The filmmaker was also booked on the charges of insulting national honour by sharing on his Instagram and Facebook accounts a photo of a woman wearing the Indian flag.
A session’s court in Ahmedabad in June rejected Das’ plea for anticipatory bail, observing that he had deliberately claimed the photo of Amit Shah with Singhal was taken a few days before the latter’s arrest, with the intention to “tarnish the image of the Home Minister”. The photo of a woman wrapped in the Indian flag showed Das’ “mental perverseness”, the court had said in its order.
Later, the Gujarat High Court had also rejected his anticipatory bail application while observing that Das had violated provisions of the Prevention of Insults to the National Honour Act by circulating a painting showing a person wearing a dress made of the Indian flag. The Bombay High Court had also rejected Das’ transit anticipatory bail application.
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