TN fake news case: SC refuses to entertain plea by YouTuber Manish Kashyap seeking to club FIRs against him

It, however, rejected the plea for clubbing all 19 FIRs against him and their transfer to Bihar.

“We are not inclined to entertain the plea,” the bench said while rejecting the vehement submissions of senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Kashyap who is presently lodged in Madurai jail in Tamil Nadu.

Earlier, the top court had granted time to the Tamil Nadu government, represented by lawyer Amit Anand Tiwari, to respond to the amended plea of Kashyap against whom the stringent NSA was invoked for allegedly circulating the videos.

The arrested Youtuber faces several FIRs and out of them, three have been lodged in Bihar.

As per preventive detention norms under the NSA, Kashyap has to be in prison for a period of 12 months, which could be extended if the government gathers fresh evidence against him.

The top court had on 11 April issued notice to the Centre, and the Tamil Nadu and Bihar governments on Kashyap’s plea seeking clubbing of the FIRs lodged against him and their transfer to his native state.

Related: North Indian BJP leaders behind fake news, says TN CM Stalin

Misinformation drive

The right-wing YouTuber Kashyap posted videos on his Twitter handle stating that the migrant workers from Bihar were subjected to torture and even hanged to death in Tamil Nadu for speaking in Hindi.

The Madurai Crime Branch police arrested him from Bettiah in Bihar on 18 March.

Eight FIRs were filed against Kashyap in Tamil Nadu. The Bihar Police have registered 13 cases against him.

The fake videos he posted were widely shared on social media and the Bihar and Tamil Nadu governments were forced to issue clarifications.

After the videos had gone viral, a four-member team of Bihar officials led by IAS officer Balamurugan visited Tamil Nadu and clarified that there were no such incidents.

Kashyap surrendered before Champaran Police in Bihar in early March, while the Economic Offence Unit was in the process of attaching his house.

Related: How media, BJP leaders peddled misinformation, fake videos

How did fake videos issue blow up?

Towards the end of February, videos making the false claim that migrants were being attacked and killed in Tamil Nadu for speaking in Hindi were circulated by social media handles and even by some Hindi media outlets.

These were amplified on social media by several leaders of the BJP, especially those from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Although the Tamil Nadu police, as well as DMK leaders, issued several clarifications and independent fact-checkers called out the fake news, the videos continued to be in circulation, leading to a political slugfest between the BJP and the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu.

Several mainstream Hindi media outlets like Punjab Kesari Bihar-Jharkhand, Dainik Bhaskar, ABP Bihar, and Zee Bihar-Jharkhand aired news, and pushed the videos on social media.

The Tamil Nadu police said on 4 March that cases have been filed against several people, including journalists, for spreading false information. Among those booked were the CEO and editor of the news website OpIndia.

The police formed special teams to apprehend those booked, even as it stepped up vigilance in areas where Hindi-speaking migrants lived in Tamil Nadu.

The Cyber Crime Wing of the Tamil Nadu Police also booked state BJP chief K Annamalai for instigating hatred and violence by peddling disinformation on the migrant workers’ issue, even as the party vice president blamed the BJP and UP arms of the BJP for spreading fake news without verifying it.

(With PTI inputs)