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Two arrested for spreading fake news, Rana Ayyub thanks Mumbai police

As fake news started circulating against her and she received rape and death threats online, Ayyub lodged a complaint with the cyber police station at Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, and four unknown persons were booked on January 28.

Journalist Rana Ayyub thanked the Mumbai police on Saturday after they arrested two persons for allegedly spreading fake news against her.

“Mumbai cyber crime today arrested the two journalists from Scoopbeats who made a video at the behest of their employers, spreading the most vicious fake news against me. This is a big step in the direction of justice. Thank you @CPMumbaiPolice, Joint CP and the other officers. The two young journalists had accused me of being aided by Pakistan, announced that I had been banned by Saudi Arabia, and attributed morphed anti-India tweets to me have said their employers @thescoopbeats had asked them to do this hit job on me to target my reputation,” she tweeted.

As fake news started circulating against her and she received rape and death threats online, Ayyub lodged a complaint with the cyber police station at Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, and four unknown persons were booked on January 28. In February the police arrested a man from Bhopal for allegedly threatening to rape Ayyub, a columnist with the Washington Post and an author.

“We had arrested one Siddharth Shrivastav in the case on February 10. Later we identified a news portal that had published fake news about her. They had uploaded on their YouTube channel a video titled ‘Saudi Arabia bans Rana Ayyub’, in which they had made objectionable comments against her. They had even used doctored tweets in which they claimed that she expressed hatred for India,” said a police officer.

Later two of the other accused were identified as Vidyanshi Krishkumar Trivedi and Ayush Chandramohan Srivastav, who hail from Uttar Pradesh. They were traced and arrested on Saturday.
“The two arrested persons formerly worked with a news portal that claims to be an India-based news organisation. It was on their YouTube channel that a news bulletin with the wrong information was aired,” said the officer.