YouTuber and mastermind, who created panic by spreading fake videos on social media about Bihari migrants being allegedly attacked in Tamil Nadu, Manish Kashyap has been arrested following his surrender at Jagdishpur police station in West Champaran on March 18.
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Earlier, the Economic Offence Unit (EOU) froze the total of ₹42.11 lakhs rupees of his bank accounts. According to EOU, he has ₹3,37496 in SBI account, ₹51, 069 in IDFC Bank account, ₹3,37463 in HDFC bank account and ₹34,85,909 in HDFC bank account of Sachtak Foundation.
Mr. Manish was absconding for the past week since FIRs were lodged against him and others.
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While speaking to The Hindu, EOU additional director general (ADG) Nayyar Hasnain Khan said, “Manish Kashyap is in our custody and currently we are interrogating him at EOU office Patna. He will be interrogated by both Bihar Police and Tamil Nadu police which have arrived in Patna. Three FIRs have been lodged against him EOU related to spreading fake videos on social media. There are several charges against him. Our team was continuously conducting raids and tracking him. Since yesterday he was on the run. Two teams were there in Delhi and Haryana and six teams of SIT were there in Bihar. He was trying to run away from the SIT and was going to surrender in Bettiah court but he could not reach there and surrendered at the nearest police station that is Jagdishpur OP.”
Mr. Khan further said, “There was an old case in which Kurki (attachment of property) was being done in Bettiah. Interrogation will be done on all possible angles like the purpose of creating fake videos, why he did this, who are the others supporting him and how he managed to run away and where he was hiding from so many days. We will also ask the lacunas in his bank accounts, money transfer into his bank accounts because there is a trail of money. He has a history of posting several other objectionable posts on social media. Seven cases are already lodged against him in Bihar including the case of communal nature and rioting as well. He already has a very big criminal background. What he was heading for, we will interrogate this entire angle.”
Mr. Khan also said that the interrogation will also be done on the recent photo he has made viral with Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Bageshwar Dham.
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On Saturday, he would be produced in the court and EOU will request the court to give him a police remand for further interrogation. Tamil Nadu police will also seek his remand to take him to Chennai for the interrogation but that would happen only if the court allows it. Tamil Nadu police has lodged nine cases against him.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Opposition in Bihar attempted to portray Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as anti-Bihari alleging that when the migrants’ workers were being beaten up in Tamil Nadu, the RJD leader Tejashwi was cutting the cake of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on his birthday in Chennai.
There was a big uproar over the issue in the ongoing Budget Session of Bihar Assembly and Opposition walked out from the House when Speaker Awadh Bihari Choudhary had rejected their demand of special debate on the issue.
After an investigation by EOU, It has come to the fore that most of the videos circulated on social media were fabricated and fake. In fact, one of the videos in which Bihari migrants were shown with injury on the forehead was shot in Bengali Colony of Jakkanpur locality in Patna. The shooting of the video took place on March 6 and was posted on social media on March 8.