The Tamil Nadu police have apprehended a lawyer and BJP supporter, based in Kanniyakumari, for tweeting a fake news over the Odisha train accident. When the entire nation is mourning the tragic triple-train mishap that happened last Friday in the Balasore district of Odisha that killed 288 people and injured a thousand, the supporters of BJP and Hindutva outfits have built a fake news propaganda that the station master of the Bahanaga Bazar station that was close to the accident site was Muslim. 

The spread of fake news that the station master was a Muslim had been rampant. It was reported that the fatal accident, involving two passenger trains and a freight carrier, had happened due to signalling failure and the accident has currently been probed by the CBI. In the midst of enduring a deadliest collision, the BJP supporters ran a campaign that the station master of the Bahanaga Bazar station was Mohammed Sheriff and that he had been absconding after the accident.

However, several fact-checking sites have exposed the campaign of false propaganda by the Hindutva outfits and revealed that the station master was neither a Muslim nor he had absconded. Inquiries had also revealed that SB Mohanty was on duty as the Station Superintendent at the time of accident and SK Patnayak was the station master of Bahanaga Bazar station. It further came to the revelation that the station has no one working in the name of Mohammed Sheriff. 

As the fake news campaigners had egg on their faces, it was also reported that the station officials are cooperating with the probe. Back in Tamil Nadu, the state where one of the collided trains was heading to, the police announced that a strict action would be taken against the fake news spreaders over the Odisha train accident. The Tamil Nadu police have now arrested a BJP supporter who spread a fake news that the station master was a Muslim. 

According to IANS, Senthil Kumar is an advocate and BJP supporter. He is a resident of Thuckalay in Kanniyakumari district and he had tweeted that Bahanaga Bazar station master Mohammed Sheriff went underground after the tragic train accident and that he should be interrogated. As he had spread a misinformation, DMK member Dinesh Kumar had filed a complaint against Senthil Kumar for spreading a wrong information on social media. 

Dinesh Kumar said that Senthil Kumar made the tweet with a motive of creating religious division and hatred. The Thuckalay police registered a case under Sections 153 - wantonly giving provocation with the intent to cause riot, 153A- committing offence in any place of worship or in any assembly engaged in the performance of religious worship or religious ceremonies, 505(1)(b) - causing or likely to cause fear or alarm to the public, and 505(2) against the advocate. The BJP supporter was later apprehended him.