Navi Mumbai Police has detained Vinay Dubey on April 14, 2020 in connection with Bandra incident where more than 1500 migrant workers gathered on Bandra station breaking the lockdown laws.
The man arrested, Vinay Dubey, put out several social media posts pushing a campaign he called "Chalo Ghar Ki Ore (let's head home)", which are believed to have instigated migrants stranded by the prolonged lockdown, desperate to return to their native villages.
An FIR for rioting has been filed against nearly 1,000 people for Tuesday's incident at Bandra, which took place hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown till May 3, 2020.
A complaint has also been filed against a television journalist over his report that a special train for migrants would run, which, the police claim, may have prompted the large gathering at Bandra. The journalist has been detained for the report, which was based on a railway ministry meeting to decide on a "Jan Sadharan" train for migrants stranded by the lockdown.
An eight-minute-long Facebook live initiated by self-proclaimed leader Vinay Dubey in which he appealed to migrant labourers to come in large numbers at the railway station and protest against the lack of food arrangements is considered the cause for such huge gathering at the station and in total violation of the social distancing norms to be observed during the nationwide lockdown.
Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Anil Deshmukh tweeted that whosoever has sparked such rumours will be dealt with full force of law.
Dubey has been charged with Indian Penal code, 1860 (IPC) sections 117, 153 A, 188, 269, 270, 505 (2) and Section 3 of The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. He is scheduled to be produced before a local court today (April 15, 2020).
