Two held for spreading misinformation on Covid

Bhubaneswar: Capital Police on Monday arrested two persons, including a recovered Covid patient, for allegedly spreading misinformation on the pandemic on social media.
At the centre of the arrest is an audio clip of a purported phone conversation between the two persons, which went viral on social media a few days ago. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday lodged a police complaint against a news channel for running the audio clip in a bulletin.
“During investigation, it was found that the two accused persons recorded a conversation, edited it and circulated the clip on social media with mischievous intent. In the conversation, they spoke of misleading and false information about the state government’s Covid management,” a senior police officer said.
Police said the accused talked about Covid reports of patients being manipulated by the government to help hospitals reap profits. “We booked them under relevant sections including 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease and dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease) of the IPC and sections under the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act,” the officer said.
A number of people took to social media and criticised police for the arrests. “Odisha Police have arrested two men who posted their phone chat online. Their ‘crime’? One of them allegedly tested Covid +ve & spoke of fake ‘treatment’ at massive govt cost. This is just the latest in massive corona-related corruption scams in Odisha,” tweeted BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda.
Police defended their action and said they had arrested a number of people in the past four months for allegedly spreading misinformation on Covid-19.
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