Mumbai: The Mumbai Police on Wednesday arrested a man from Navi Mumbai, Vinay Dube, for allegedly posting messages on social media which triggered a huge crowd of migrants in Bandra on Tuesday evening, officials said.
A self-styled activist for north-Indians in Mumbai, Dube was produced before a magistrate who remanded him in police custody till April 21, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhishek Trimukhe said.
Besides, the police have registered two other offences against several other persons, for allegedly spreading fake messages that resulted in the massive jamming.
Dube was detained by Navi Mumbai Police early today, and after the preliminary questioning was handed over to Bandra Police which arrested him early today (Wednesday).
Among other things, he had demanded that the Maharashtra government should make transportation arrangements to ferry the stranded migrants to their native states and called for nationwide protests if the trains were not made operational till April 18.
The move came hours after Home Minister Anil Deshmukh assured stringent action against those spreading mischievous messages via social media.
It is suspected that Dube’s posts may have prompted yesterday’s impromptu crowd, which was controlled and dispersed after a mild caning by the police, that alarmed the state health authorities after ‘social distancing’ went for a toss.
A majority of those who joined the protests were from north Indian states and the issue sparked a political row in Maharashtra.
The Congress has also blamed the Indian Railways for creating confusion which led to yesterday’s gathering of over 3,000 people flouting prohibitory orders clamped in view of the lockdown till May 3.
Prasanta Patnaik