Mumbai-based filmmaker Avinash Das, 46, was on Tuesday detained by Ahmedabad Police in connection with a case lodged against him for sharing on Twitter a photo of Union Home Minister Amit Shah with arrested IAS officer Pooja Singhal.
He has been detained from Mumbai and is being brought to Ahmedabad where he will likely be placed under arrest.
“We detained Mr. Das from Mumbai on Tuesday. He is being brought to Ahmedabad by our team for further legal process,” the city crime branch’s Assistant Commissioner of Police D. P. Chudasama said.
Earlier, Ahmedabad detention of crime branch had registered an FIR against him under Section 469 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code as well as provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and the Information Technology Act, as he had also posted on his Instagram and Facebook accounts another photo of a woman wearing the national flag.
The FIR against Mr. Das was registered in June after he shared a photo showing Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Pooja Singhal, who had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, whispering something to Mr. Shah.
The FIR lodged by the police stated that in a caption to the photo Mr. Das had claimed the picture was taken a few days before Ms. Singhal’s arrest, while it was actually taken in 2017.
The crime branch had alleged this was done with an intention to tarnish the Union Home Minister’s image and reputation.
Following the FIR, his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by Ahmedabad Sessions Court observing that he had deliberately claimed the photo of Mr. Shah with Ms. Singhal was taken a few days before the latter’s arrest, with the intention to “tarnish the image of the Home Minister”.
The photo of a woman wrapped in the national flag showed “mental perverseness”, the court had said in its order.
Subsequently, the Gujarat High Court had also rejected his anticipatory bail application while observing that Mr. Das had violated provisions of the Prevention of Insults to the National Honour Act by circulating a painting showing a person wearing a dress made of the tricolour.
In Mumbai, the Bombay High Court had also rejected his transit anticipatory bail application.
Mr. Das directed the 2017 film ‘ Anaarkali of Aarah’, starring Swara Bhaskar, Sanjay Mishra and Pankaj Tripathi, and ‘ Raat Baaki Hai’, which was released in 2021. He had also helmed a Netflix series called ‘ She.’
