India: Delhi Police files FIR over Amit Shah’s ‘doctored video’ on scrapping reservation

The Delhi Police’s Special Cell registered an FIR over a tampered video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed that the footage showing Shah making vows to scrap all reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was false.

“We received a complaint regarding the edited video of the Home Minister. Two complaints were received by police, one from the BJP and another from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Following this, the Delhi Police Special Cell Cyber Wing’s IFSO unit filed an FIR,” a source said.

The BJP had earlier alleged that the original footage of Shah had him talk about the removal of a 4 per cent “unconstitutional” reservation for Muslims in Telangana.

However, the saffron party said that the footage, which was from a recent election rally, was edited in a manner where it indicated that the Union Home Minister was advocating the move to scrap Muslim reservations.

A case has been registered under Sections 153, 153A, 465, 469, 171G of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66C of the Information Technology (IT) Act and a probe has been initiated, said the sources as per Indian news agencies.

“The video seems to be doctored, spreading misleading information with the intention of creating disharmony among communities which is likely to affect public tranquillity and public order issues. It is requested to kindly take necessary legal action as per the provisions of law,” the ministry said, as per the FIR, according to IANS.

Congress state units shared the video on their respective social media handles stating that the BJP was making plans to terminate SC/ST reservations.

Jharkhand Congress, sharing the video on its official X handle wrote, “Amit Shah’s election speech went viral in which he said that if the BJP government is formed again, OBC and SC/ST reservation will be abolished”.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Amit Malviya said that Congress is “spreading an edited video, which is completely fake and has the potential to cause large-scale violence. Home Minister Amit Shah spoke about removing the unconstitutional reservation given to Muslims, on the basis of religion, after reducing the share of SCs/STs and OBCs. This fake video has been posted by several Congress spokespersons. They must be prepared for legal consequences”.

(With inputs from agencies)