A fake journalist was arrested in Hailakandi district of Assam, while an unauthorized mobile phone application of a leading English daily of the state was also detected on April 12.
One Dilwar Hussain Laskar, who was posing as a correspondent of Time8, a Guwahati-based news portal, was apprehended by Hailakandi police along with his car.
The police informed the matter to the District Information and Public Relations officer, Sabir Nishat, who, in turn, filed an FIR stating that Laskar was not with Time8 and that he was a fake journalist.
Official sources from Hailakandi said the local correspondent of Time8, Bidhan Sen, had approached Laskar, who works as a DTP operator, to make a print out of the new identity card which he had received from his Guwahati-based office on his WhatsApp number during the lockdown on March 29.
Laskar made a fake identity card and posed himself as a Correspondent of Time8.
The police have registered a case under Sections 409 and 420 of IPC against Laskar and interrogation is on.
Meanwhile, an unauthorized mobile app of The Assam Tribune, the state’s oldest English daily, has surfaced on Google Play Store.
The Assam Tribune authorities said they have intimated the police regarding the same.
The Assam Police has also alerted users against the app through a Twitter post, stating that the app is ‘fake and unauthorised’. “Do not download, use or make any payment,” the tweet warned.
