In the wake of the recent surge in Coronavirus cases in several countries, a post is doing the rounds saying that any post related to COVID-19 is a punishable offence in India, and only the government agencies can post information about the virus.
The viral message in Hindi reads: *सूचना* *ग्रुप के सभी सम्माननीय सदस्यों को सूचित किया जाता है कि अभी केंद्र सरकार द्वारा कोरोना वायरस से सम्बंधित कोई भी पोस्ट को दण्डनीय अपराध घोषित कर दिया गया है कोरोना पर सिर्फ सरकारी एजेंसी ही पोस्ट कर सकती है । गलत पोस्ट या मैसेज करने पर ग्रुप एडमिन सहित पूरे ग्रुप के सदस्यों पर IT Act के अन्तर्गत मुकदमा पंजीकृत कर कार्यवाही की जाएगी, इसलिए ध्यान रखें सतर्क रहें सुरक्षित रहे !*
*रवि नायक*
*प्रमुख सचिव*
*गृह मंत्रालय भारत सरकार*
(English Translation: NOTICE: All the respected members of the group are informed that now any post related to Coronavirus has been declared a punishable offence by the Central government. Only government agencies can post on Corona. A case will be registered under IT Act against the entire group admin for posting wrong posts or messages, so be careful stay safe! Ravi Nayak, Chief Secretary, Home Ministry Government of India)
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above message, and found it to be FAKE.
We checked the official website and social media handles of the Ministry of Home Affairs, but did not find any such announcements.
Since the post was undersigned by ‘Ravi Nayak, Chief Secretary, Home Ministry’, we looked for him, but did not find any information about him or his designation on the website.
We also found a post by the Press Information Bureau, dated December 27, 2022, clari- fying that the above claim is false as the Home Ministry has not passed any such orders.
Hence, we can conclusively say that the viral post is FAKE.
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