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by IANS |
Lucknow, May 12 (IANS) The Lucknow police has lodged an FIR against Samajwadi Party spokesman I.P. Singh and two others for allegedly defaming BJP MP Sanjay Seth and his family on social media.
The SP leader and two others, Ramdutt Tiwari and Mahendra Kudiya, had allegedly dragged the name of the MP's family in a case related to the death of a 41-year-old Thai woman in the state capital, earlier this month.
The woman had died of Covid and questions were raised about her presence in Lucknow.
The FIR was lodged at Gautam Palli police station under Section 500 (defamation) of the IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act on the basis of the complaint lodged by the MP's officer on special duty (OSD) Anup Kumar Pandey.
Lucknow police commissioner DK Thakur said the probe into the case had already begun.
"One of them, Kudiya, has already apologized to the BJP MP on Twitter and has tagged Lucknow police in the tweet," said Thakur.
Kudiya's Twitter profile says he is a journalist.
In his complaint, Pandey said: "I was told by my friends that some fake posts defaming Sanjay Seth and his family are being circulated on social media. A person IP Singh posted something on Twitter and it was retweeted by Ramdutt Tiwari with a photograph. There is a need to probe this and find the source of the post. The content of the post was bizarre and false. One Mahendra Kudiya also shared the post. Similar posts were also circulated on WhatsApp."
He demanded a probe into the identity and details of the woman, details of her stay in Lucknow and her contacts.
"Some people are using social media to disturb peace in the country and are ruining the image of people in the society," the complaint said.
Alleging that the FIR was lodged against him under "political pressure", the SP leader tweeted, "I have been told through friends in the media that a case has been registered against me. The woman died without treatment and the name of a prominent businessman appeared in media reports. There was no question asked on police laxity and no action against those responsible. My crime-- To demand an investigation."
