A Bangladeshi journalist and a woman staffer of an Indian news portal have been by the Bengaluru Police for allegedly spreading fake news about Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi, both senior Congress leaders.
The FIR for spreading "fake news and misinformation" was registered at the High Grounds police station in Karnataka's Bengaluru against the journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhaury shared a post and Aditi for sharing his claims on the social media handle of the news portal she is working with, a news agency PTI report officials as saying.
Srinivas G, associated with the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), alleged in his complaint that the Bangladeshi journalist allegedly shared a post on his X handle linking Sonia Gandhi to a foreign spy agency.
He alleged Choudhary did so with an intention to malign the public image of the Gandhi family and that the journalist had shared such a post to create enmity between two religions.
Srinivas accused Choudhury with having made certain claims about Rahul Gandhi.
"Based on the complaint we received, we have filed an FIR against the two for allegedly spreading misinformation about the Gandhi family. Case has been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony and 353 (2) (publishing or circulating false information to create hatred on the basis of religion etc)," the PTI report quoted a senior police officer as saying.
An investigation is underway and accordingly action will be taken in the case, he said.
The Indian news portal - Jaipur Dialogues - also reacted to the FIR against its staffer and said in a post, "This is the Mohabbat ki Dukaan that Rahul Gandhi and Congress talks about. While they yell about Freedom of Speech and how they are against Fascism, their actions portray that they are much worse. A member of our team has been booked by Bengaluru Police for writing an article against Rahul Gandhi. If this is not Fascism, we don't know what is."
