Case against a Major (rtd) for posting satire on oranges ban in Hyd

Hyderabad: The cyber crime wing of Cyberabad police, booked a case against Major (retired) for posting a satire on social media, claiming 'sale of oranges have been banned in Hyderabad'.

Major Neelam Singh (retired) against whom a case has been booked, reported shared a morphed newspaper clipping of a news article of an leading English daily. The 'satire' article stated, 'the Cyberabad police have banned oranges in the city as the colour of the fruits were hurting Muslim sentiments. The post also said that this move to ban the sale, display, and consumption of oranges was taken to promote secularism in the city'. The retired officer had posted the photo on Twitter handle @theskindoctor. The profile picture is of a medico.

Speaking of the case, the Cyberabad police said, Twitter account holder “theskindoctor13” who created a fake news (Satire) article by editing the old story of Deccan Chronicle News Paper. The headline read, ‘Cyberabad Police bans the Sale of Oranges in the City’ and attached a morphed photo with the Senior police officers of Cyberabad Commissionerate'. In the news/article he mentioned that to boost secularism to the hilt, Cyberabad police banned the display, sale and consumption of Oranges in the City as saffron color of oranges is hurting the sentiments of the Muslims'.

The cops further adds, 'As the above post is likely to promote enmity between different religions and prejudicial to the maintenance of communal harmony, a criminal case has been registered on Mr Major Neelam Singh (Retd) who posted the above fake news on twitter. In view of the above it is appealed to the citizens not to post such fake and objectionable posts, as it may mislead the citizens and also disrupt the communal harmony among the religions.

It is further requested that, citizens should not believe such type of fake posts, unless it is confirmed by the authorities concerned'.

In March, the Hyderabad police had arrested three men for sharing a fake picture and claiming that a COVID-19 patient had died in Hyderabad’s Gandhi Hospital. Not to long ago, The Rachakonda police had also arrested a man for spreading fake messages on WhatsApp claiming three people from an area had tested positive for the virus. When in reality no one was COVID positive.