Congress leader Kamal Nath booked for 'spreading panic' by referring to B.1.617 strain as Indian variant

BJP leaders alleged that Nath had referred to COVID-19 as the Indian variant, thereby spreading fear among the masses.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath has been booked for allegedly creating panic and spreading misinformation on the coronavirus pandemic after the Congress leader said at a press conference that the world knew the B.1.617 strain, first found in India, as the "Indian variant".

The case was filed on a complaint lodged by Bhopal BJP district president Sumeet Pachouri, two BJP MLAs Vishwas Sarang and Rameshwar Sharma, among others, a report said.

The former CM was charged under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the IPC and section 54 (making or circulating a false alarm or warning as to disaster or its severity or magnitude, leading to panic) of National Disaster Management Act 2005.

Superintendent of Police Ramji Shrivastav told PTI that the action was taken based on the complaint and two videos provided by the complainants in a pen drive.

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The report of the police action against Nath comes after the Centre on May 21 asked social media companies to immediately remove any content on their platform that mentioned or refered to the term “Indian variant” of coronavirus to curb spread of misinformation around COVID-19.

The IT ministry wrote to social media platforms, saying the World Health Organisation (WHO) had not associated the term "Indian Variant" with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in any of its reports.

In his complaint, Pachori said that during a press conference, Nath had referred to COVID-19 as the Indian variant, thereby spreading fear among the masses.

BJP leaders alleged that the Madhya Pradesh Congress chief had said "Coronavirus, which has spread in the world, is being known as the Indian variant of the virus".

"Kamal Nath said COVID-19 started with the Chinese variant but now it is the Indian variant of COVID-19 which is responsible for the second wave and many countries have suspended flights due to the Indian variant. Nath also said Indians who are working and studying in foreign countries are facing trouble due to it. But in reality, foreign countries are trying to help India by sending important items to fight against the epidemic. Nath tried to misguide people and to create disturbance in the country," the Hindustan Times quoted the FIR as saying.

Read: Govt asks social media platforms to remove content mentioning 'Indian variant' of coronavirus

Kamal Nath's statement was creating confusion and defaming the country internationally, the complaint said, adding the Congress leader Nath had overlooked the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to stem COVID-19 and his act amounts to sedition according to IPC.

The complaint also said Nath's "false allegations" that the MP government was hiding the real number of deaths that occurred due to coronavirus amounted to creating fear and was a criminal offence.

"When I released the actual figures of deaths from Corona in Madhya Pradesh, the responsible people in power woke up? Because he is constantly engaged in the game of suppressing and hiding the statistics of deaths in this epidemic," Nath had tweeted on May 22.

Investigation into the case were on, Shrivastav said, without giving any further details.

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