Ahmedabad Crime Branch Detains Film-Maker Avinash Das Over Image of Amit Shah

Das was detained after he shared a photo of Union Home Minister Amit Shah with arrested IAS officer Pooja Singhal.

The Ahmedabad Police’s Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) detained film-maker Avinash Das on Tuesday, 19 July.

(Photo: Accessed by The Quint)

The Ahmedabad Police’s Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) detained film-maker Avinash Das on Tuesday, 19 July, in connection with a case related to sharing a photo of Union Home Minister Amit Shah with arrested IAS officer Pooja Singhal, The Indian Express reported.

Das is currently being brought to Ahmedabad for further legal action.

Crime Branch ACP DP Chudasama said, "We detained Das from Mumbai on Tuesday. He is being brought to Ahmedabad by our team for further legal process.”

An FIR, registered on 13 May, against Das at the Ahmedabad DCB police station, also booked the film-maker for allegedly insulting the national flag when he shared a morphed image of a woman clothed in a tricolour on his Facebook account.

He has been booked under Section 469 (Forgery) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 67 of the Information Technology Act and relevant sections of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act.

The Bombay High Court rejected a plea by the 46-year-old maker of Anarkali of Aarah seeking a transit pre-arrest bail plea in the case related to Shah. The Indian Express, quoting sources, claimed that the Ahmedabad DCB camped in Mumbai for a week in an attempt to arrest Das.

The image shared by Das on his official Twitter account showed Home Minister Shah and IAS officer Singhal speaking to each other at a public event.

The Indian Express further reported that the written complaint by the Ahmedabad DCB claimed that Das shared the image of the pair from a public event held in Ranchi in 2017. It added that Das shared the image in an attempt to “allegedly mislead the people and defame the reputation” of the home minister.

The Case Against Singhal 

IAS officer and Jharkhand Mining secretary Pooja Singhal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday, 11 May, in connection with the ongoing probe of the Prevention of Money Laundering case pertaining to the alleged embezzlement of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds.

On Friday, 6 May, the ED had conducted raids against the bureaucrat, her businessman husband Abhishek Jha, and others in Jharkhand and a few other locations. Suman Kumar, who is her husband's chartered accountant as per IANS, was arrested in this case on 7 May.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Chief Minister (CM) Hemant Soren had commented on her arrest and said that all possible legal action would be taken by the state government on this issue.

(With inputs from The Indian Express.)