Police registered two First Information Reports (FIRs) on Wednesday morning against three
Earlier, police registered seven FIRs across multiple police stations in Gautam Budh Nagar against over 4,000 people, and two separate FIRs at Cyber Crime Branch police station against social media handles on Monday. By Tuesday evening, 396 people had been arrested.
The protest began in Noida on Friday in the Phase 2 area, when thousands of demonstrators began gathering to demand salary hike, bonuses and leave. Initially, the protests were peaceful for three days, but they turned violent on Monday.
The first FIR registered on Wednesday was against two X handlers, Priyanka Bharti and Dr Kanchan Yadav, for posting videos of the Shahdul police assault incident in Madhya Pradesh on April 11.
Both the accounts claim to be national spokesmen for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), police said.
The second FIR was registered against a Facebook account, Jitendra Kumar Dausa, for posting similar content linking the Shahdul incident to the Noida protest, and against X user, Katyayani, for sharing another unrelated incident as if it had happened in Noida.
The FIRs were registered by officers of the rank of sub-inspector under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act and the Information Technology Act, the police said.
“The incident is being presented and circulated in a completely false and misleading manner. The immediate consequence of these false allegations made by both the Twitter users through electronic media was the spread of anger and fear among the public in different areas of Noida. As a result, there has been an adverse impact on law and order,” the FIR states.
She added: “Due to these posts, an atmosphere of fear and mistrust spread in the surrounding areas, affecting the image of the police. It is clear from these posts that the Twitter users deliberately spread false and misleading information in a planned manner with the aim of creating fear, confusion, anger and mistrust among the public. This created a situation that could have destabilized public peace. The Twitter users tried to provoke and incite people by creating a misleading narrative and thus tried to disrupt law and order.”
Noida Police Commissioner Lakshmi Singh said that strict action will be taken against anyone inciting violence in the area. Apart from this, the police are also scanning CCTV cameras to identify people involved in vandalism.
Police said more than 6,000 personnel are on the ground to prevent disturbances in any area in Noida and Greater Noida. As a precaution, officials said the personnel will remain deployed for three days.
