Bengal man who ‘mocked’ traffic awareness message held on charges of ‘endangering sovereignty’

The West Bengal Police has arrested a social media influencer from Hooghly district on charges of endangering national sovereignty for allegedly mocking a traffic awareness message online, PTI reported on Friday.

Amit Nandi, who had written the post on the social media platform Facebook on January 27, was arrested on February 14 after a case was registered at the Kanthi police station in Purba Medinipur district by Sub Inspector Dilip Gupta, The Wire reported.

The first information report claimed that Nandi’s post, which has since been deleted, parodied the slogan “don’t drive after drinking alcohol” used by the police. The FIR described the post as a “distortion” of a public awareness message that the police had been uploading on its official page.

The FIR said that the post contained “wrong, unverified and baseless allegations”, adding that it intended to “lower the dignity and prestige of the police department, harm the reputation and public image of the police, [and] create mistrust and negative perception among the general public against the police administration”, The Wire reported.

Gupta further alleged that the post was a part of a “planned smear campaign” against the police.

“He distorted an official public-awareness post,” the online news portal quoted the sub inspector as saying. “Because he has many followers, the post was shared widely. Since...

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