New Delhi: Gujarat Police has arrested filmmaker Avinash Das for posting among other photos, one of Union home minister Amit Shah with a Jharkhand IAS officer arrested for graft – a day after detaining him from Mumbai.

"Das was officially arrested at 4 am on Wednesday. We are now scanning his social media accounts to check if he had posted some other offensive material in the past. We will produce him in a court in the afternoon to seek his remand," Ahmedabad Crime Branch's Deputy Commissioner of Police Chaitanya Mandlik said.

Indian Express has reported Police having claimed that Das has a "history of posting fake and wrong posts." Notably, Shah's image was not fake and has been reported to have been clicked at a public event in 2017.

The Wire had reported that Das was detained on July 19 for sharing two images – one of Shah with arrested IAS officer Pooja Singhal and another of a painting of a woman wearing a dress in the colours of the national flag – on his social media account.

An FIR had allegedly been registered against Das by Ahmedabad Police’s Detection of Crime Branch on May 13.

As per the FIR, in a caption to the photo Das had claimed the picture – showing Singhal, who had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, whispering something to Shah – was taken a few days before Singhal's arrest, while it was actually taken in 2017.

The filmmaker is charged under Section 469 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code as well as provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act and the Information Technology Act.

“He has a history of posting fake and wrong posts on social media. He had posted a picture on social media where people were lying on the ground during the Covid pandemic with the caption, ‘somewhere in Gujarat’… However, the picture was of some other place. Likewise, he has posted many fake photos… We have also found a post where he described Hindu gods and goddesses in an obscene manner,” Chaitanya Mandlik told reporters, according to Express.

'Could hurt sentiments'

The crime branch in a release on Wednesday said it has found another tweet posted by Das which "appears to be offensive and could hurt sentiments of Hindus."

In the Hindi tweet, posted in 2016, which was mentioned in the release, Das tried to convey in a satirical way that he cannot give up alcohol because Gods such as Brahma and Ram reside in different types of liquor, like whiskey and brandy.

Das had directed the 2017 film Anaarkali of Aarah, starring Swara Bhaskar, Sanjay Mishra and Pankaj Tripathi, and the 2021 movie Raat Baaki Hai. He had also helmed a Netflix series called She.

A sessions court in June rejected Das' plea for anticipatory bail, observing that he had deliberately claimed the photo of Shah with Singhal was taken a few days before the latter's arrest, with the intention to tarnish the image of the Home Minister.

The photo of a woman wrapped in the national flag showed Das' mental perverseness , the court had said in its order.

Later, the Gujarat high court had also rejected his anticipatory bail application while observing that Das had violated provisions of the Prevention of Insults to the National Honour Act by circulating a painting showing a person wearing a dress made of the tricolour.

The Bombay High Court had also rejected Das' transit anticipatory bail application.

(With PTI inputs)

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