The Quint Ground Report | Nagpur Riots: How Aurangzeb Chadar Row Sparked Communal Violence, Police Crackdown & Social Media Arrests Across the City
With over 13 FIRs filed, the Nagpur Police has set up multiple investigative teams — not just for ground-level violence but also for social media activity.
The first FIR filed by the police mentioned Fahim Shamim Khan’s role in detail, booking him with 51 other individuals.
A second FIR, that mentioned six other social media handles, included local YouTuber Mohammad Shahzad of NNTV. The captions on his videos allegedly read, ‘kalma ki chadar ko jalaya gaya’ and ‘police ne jabrun lathi maari.’
“The police said that because the video went viral, and he has about 80,000 to 1 lakh followers, people were incited to carry out riots. When the police took him away on 17 March, they did not say anything. They said that a senior officer has called him. They checked his mobile phone and he was questioned. They kept saying that they will let him go after questioning. At about 11 pm, they said that an FIR has been lodged against him,” his brother Mohd Jamal, also a local politician, told The Quint.
“Then, they gave us a notice about the action and the FIR. He was issued a notice in which Section 152 has been invoked. It was not there in the original FIR,” he said.
Jamal raised questions on selective targeting:
“This is a way to snatch people’s freedom of speech. When videos like these are posted, people share them or like them. They are being acted upon. You take a look at platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, people of all communities share all kinds of videos.”
Lohit Matani, DCP, Cyber Cell, explained what kind of social media handles and YouTube channels are being booked.
“Some accused specifically edited videos and incited people to pelt stones, they are being acted against. The cyber cell is not investigating videos specifically to ascertain what was written on the chadar, that is a matter of a separate FIR,” Matani said.
