Police in Alipurduar today arrested one retired health worker for sharing a post on Facebook that had “wrong information” on the spread of Covid-19. The arrested has been identified as Suchitra Das, 62, a resident of Shantinagar area in Alipurduar town.
“She was a health supervisor in the Kumargrame block in Alipurduar district earlier,” sources said. It is learnt that one Subrata Biswas made a post on Facebookand claimed that 18 persons were infected with Covid-19 in Alipurduar district and that one of them had died.
“The information uploaded in Facebook by Subrata Biswas is completely false,” a district health department official said. Sources said that Mr Biswas, a resident of Alipurduar district, had posted the claim on Facebook from Delhi where he is presently living.
“The Alipurduar police is also communicating with the Delhi police to arrest Mr Biswas,” sources said. “We arrested one woman for sharing a Facebook post which had false information about Covid-19 cases in Alipurduar district. We are searching for another person who originally made such a post,” Alipurduar Superintendent of Police Amitava Amity said.
District health officials informed the police as soon as they noticed the Facebook post, and promptly investigated the matter. “We informed the police of the Facebook post that had made false claims about our district. All the 39 samples tested from Alipurduar district have come out negative for Covid-19,” said a district health official, who did not want to be named.
It may be recalled that a BJP leader in Alipurduar district had earlier been arrested for making a Facebook post regarding the coronavirus. Later, a primary school teacher was also booked for making a Facebook post regarding the corona spread in the district.