File photo of Avinash Das
Ahmedabad: Gujarat police have filed a case against filmmaker Avinash Das after he shared a photo of Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Pooja Singhal, who was recently arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
According to Ahmedabad Crime Branch officials, Das on May 8 shared a photo of Shah with Pooja Singhal on Twitter with a caption alleging that it was taken before the IAS officer's arrest.
However, the police said the photograph was taken five years ago and the filmmaker had shared it now to malign/defame Amit Shah's image and mislead people.
Das has also been charged for allegedly insulting the national flag by posting on March 17 a morphed picture of a woman wearing a tricolour on his Facebook account, the official said.
A case has been registered against Das under IPC 469 (forgery) and section 67 of the IT Act for the May 8 Twitter post, he said. Das has also been charged under sections of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and IT Act for the March 17 Facebook post, the official added.
The ED on Wednesday arrested Jharkhand mining secretary Singhal in a case of money laundering involving the alleged diversion of MGNREGA funds, and also seized over ₹ 18 crores in cash from the house of a chartered accountant, allegedly linked to Ms Singhal.
Das has directed the 2017 film 'Anaarkali of Aarah', starring Swara Bhaskar, Sanjay Mishra, and Pankaj Tripathi.