Coronavirus Outbreak: Three arrested in Maharashtra's Nagpur for spreading misinformation about COVID-19

Nagpur: Three persons have been arrested in Nagpur for allegedly circulating an audio clip which made a wrong claim about a drastic increase in the number of coronavirus patients in the city, police said on Friday. The clip had gone viral on 24 March and spread panic. “Our cyber cell arrested three people in connection with the clip last night,” said police commissioner Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay. [caption id=“attachment_8190361” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] “They were identified as Amit Pardhi, Jay Gupta and Divyanshu Mishra. They are suspected to have circulated the clip,” he said. As per the police, the three are well-educated. They were booked under IPC sections 188 (disobeying public servant’s lawful orders) and 505 (making or publishing statements conducive to public mischief). “We will produce them before a court today and seek their police custody. I appeal people not to spread rumours and wrong information,” said Upadhyay. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak Four more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Nagpur on Friday, taking the number of patients in the city to nine, as per health officials.