4 held for allegedly circulating old video with fake information on elections

The arrested have been identified as Vurapalli Sravan of Malkajigiri, Mohammed Bin Ali Al Gutmi of Nampally, Piddamulla Kashi of Osmanpura in Chaderghat and Kanukati Mithilesh of Chikkadpally.

The complainant was browsing social media platforms - Twitter and Facebook as a part of social media surveillance, and came across a video in which one person in a polling station was voting multiple times and saying that this incident was happened at one of the polling stations in Bahadurpura in old city in the recent Lok Sabha elections held on May 13, 2024.

However, the video was an old one recorded during West Bengal elections in 2022. This video was going viral in various social media platforms due to which the common public would lose hope and confidence in the electoral system in India. Some persons were found to be sharing the old video of West Bengal elections and circulating fake information that rigging happened in the old city, according to D. Kavitha, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crimes.

Based on a complaint, a case under Sections 66(D) of IT Act, Section 505(1)(C), 171-C r/w 171-F of IPC and took up investigation.

During the course of investigation, the four accused posted the video on Twitter and circulated it with a fake information that rigging had happened in one of the polling stations in Bahadurpura and without verifying whether it was correct or not and tagged the same to some others with intention to create a situation of re-elections in Hyderabad.