An First Information Report (FIR) has been registered in Shamli district against a YouTube channel for alleging in a video that a Muslim man was lynched by a mob in Shamli.
The YouTube channel named Hindustani Media Channel claimed that one Firoz, had been beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of theft in Shamli on July 4, which has been categorically denied by the local police.
“We have registered a FIR based on a complaint against the YouTube platform, we are verifying the address and identity of the individual and preliminary investigation has started,” Rajendra Vishishth, Station House Officer of the Thana Bhawan police station in Shamli, told The Hindu.
In the FIR accessed by The Hindu, the complainant Manendra Singh alleged that the channel and its journalist had published a video presenting wrong information and alleged that one Firoz had been lynched, which had the potential to provoke communal disharmony.
The FIR is against the Youtuber and the platform for promoting enmity between groups under section 196 and circulating false information to promote enmity, under section 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Earlier on July 6, police registered an FIR against five people, including two Delhi-based journalists named Zakir Ali Tyagi, and Wasim Akram Tyagi for falsely claiming on social media that the incident was a mob lynching. The police maintain that the death was not a case of mob lynching and have filed a FIR invoking charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against unknown persons under Section 105 of the BNS.
