Chhattisgarh man slapped with sedition charges for post on electricity shortage!
Chhattisgarh police arrested Mangelal Agarwal after officials from electricity department lodged a complaint against him. The 53-year-old was allegedly spreading rumours over power cuts on a social media platform.
In Short
- Chhattisgarh police arrested Mangelal Agarwal after officials from electricity department lodged a complaint against him
- The 53-year-old was allegedly spreading rumours over power cuts on a social media platform
- Officials said the mobile used for recording the video has been seized
A man in Chhattisgarh has been slapped with a sedition notice for allegedly spreading rumours that electricity shortages were because of a tie up between the Congress government and inverter companies.
Chhattisgarh police arrested Mangelal Agarwal from Rajnandgaon after officials from electricity department lodged a complaint against him.
The 53-year-old was allegedly spreading rumours over power cuts on a social media platform.
The power company approached the city Kotwali police station on June 12. It reported that a video had gone viral in which an unidentified man was allegedly spreading rumours and false information in order to tarnish the image of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
In the said video, Mangelal, a native of Musra village under Dongargarh police station area, on his Facebook account, is heard saying, "The Bhupesh Baghel-led government and Madhya Pradesh government had allegedly colluded with inverter manufacturing companies to increase it sales by doing frequent power cuts in the respective states."
"Inverter companies had allegedly given money to the state government to cut power supply for every 2 hours or after 10 to 15 minutes. As the frequency of power cuts will increase so will the sales of the inverter. This news is true because in Delhi there was a meeting of inverter companies with the state government...," he purportedly said in the video.
The opposition BJP condemned the Congress government and accused it of trying to suppress freedom of expression.
"While the Congress had promised to repeal the sedition law, the party itself is now misusing it to implicate and threaten common men. If spreading rumours is such a big offence, then so far several Congressmen should have been put behind bars. Congress was elected to power through false campaign only," said Santosh Pandey, BJP MP from Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat.
Officials also said the mobile used for recording the video has been seized. Agarwal will be now produced in a local court Friday, an official added.
With inputs from PTI