Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal West on Friday remanded a man who uploaded a video showing "false information" on Covid-19 vaccination and misleading the public, into police custody for five days till June 22.
The accused Khoisnam Shantikumar Singh, 41, son of Kh Jilla Meitei of Lairenjam Awang (Mekola), Imphal West was produced before the chief judicial magistrate, Imphal West through a video conference (using Jitsi Meet) with a prayer for remanding him into police custody for five days till June 22.
During the hearing, the additional public prosecutor for the state submitted that the accused person was charged u/S 505(1) (b)/505(2)/34 IPC & Section 3 of the Pandemic Disease Act 1897 with the allegation that he uploaded a video on Facebook and WhatsApp with the intention to spread false information and mislead the general public.
It is also submitted that the said video has severely affected the initiatives of the government and the health department in the curving of the COVID-19 pandemic as many people lost faith in the vaccination and the ongoing vaccination programmes.
It is also submitted that his video has demoralised the front-line workers and will make them vulnerable to obstruction, threat, intimidation and risk while performing vaccination. Hence, the prayer was submitted to the court to remand the accused into police custody for five days to enable a thorough interrogation to dig out his motive and his associates.
The counsel of the accused submitted that the offences levelled against the accused person is not that serious and prayed for rejecting the remand prayer and to let him out on bail.
The court after hearing submission and examining the materials, opined that there exists prima-facie material suggesting that the accused person has committed the offence alleged against him.
Khoisnam Shantikumar was remanded to five-day police custody to enable a smooth investigation of the case for the ends of justice.
