Kashmir lies: Car salesman nailed in city before fuelling mischief

The police had on Sunday clarified on social media that his post was false and Facebook had removed it

A still from the film The Kashmir Files.: Twitter/ @byadavbjp

TT Bureau   |   Behala   |   22.03.22  : A 28-year-old car salesman from Howrah was arrested on Monday for writing a Facebook post that police say falsely claimed his friend was heckled when he went to watch The Kashmir Files at Ajanta Cinema in Behala on Saturday.

The police had on Sunday clarified on social media that the post was false and Facebook had removed it. But by then it had been shared many times and continued to circulate on various social media platforms even on Monday.

The Kashmir Files, which seeks to chronicle the exodus of Pandits from the Valley in 1990, has run into charges of fanning anti-Muslim hatred. The film has received overwhelming support from BJP governments and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In Calcutta, police officers identified the accused as Ajit Verma.

Deputy commissioner of police (south west) Swati Bhangalia said Verma had been charged under Sections 153A, 295A, 505 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with the offences of promoting enmity between groups on grounds such as religion, outraging religious feelings, circulating rumours that may incite people, and criminal conspiracy. The offences carry a maximum jail term of five years.

Verma’s post said: “From my friend who stays in Behala... ‘Kaal raat-e ek obishhasho ghatanar shammukhin holam (Last night, I faced an unbelievable situation)’.”

The post went on to say that several people who had come to watch the film were heckled, after they had stepped out of the cinema, by bike-borne men.

The cinema owner told The Telegraph: “Nothing of this sort happened. We checked the CCTV footage. This seems a ploy to create trouble.”

Officers said Verma’s post had attracted more than 500 comments, including many that appeared to be trying to incite communal passions.

When the police contacted Verma and questioned him, he allegedly said that none of his friends had faced anything at the theatre and that his post was copied from a message he had found within a WhatsApp group, written by someone he did not know.

The police have identified  the person who had posted the message in the WhatsApp group, officers said.

After being questioned by the police, Verma posted an “apology” on Facebook saying: “Yesterday I posted something in my wall regarding an incident (that) happened in Behala but I do not have any personal knowledge over the incident. I am seriously sorry if I have hurt anybody.”

Verma’s initial Facebook post had been shared on Sunday evening within a WhatsApp group of friends, most of them from Behala, by a member who wanted to have its authenticity confirmed because “some parts of the message seemed incoherent”.

Several other forwarded posts relating to the screening of The Kashmir Files are circulating on social media.

Multiple Facebook users have shared a video clip, purportedly showing a cinema in the Golf Green area where the film’s screening was allegedly stopped for 30 minutes because of protests by a group of youths. The show apparently resumed after resistance from the audience.

More than one Facebook user has called out the “fake post”.

The hall owner denied the alleged incident. “The clip was recorded on March 16. A couple of viewers were talking loudly on the phone and that led to an argument with others — nothing else,” he said.

“Ours is a 50-year-old theatre. Brawls have happened here — for tickets of super-hit films, or between fans of rival superstars. But we have never faced any communal trouble. Some people with vested interests are trying to polarise people.”

Hall authorities have lodged a complaint with Golf Green police station.