Mumbai man detained over social media messages linked to protest

A man was detained by police in neighbouring Navi Mumbai over messages on his social media accounts which may have contributed to the gathering of a large number of migrant workers in suburban Bandra on Tuesday afternoon, an official said.

The man, identified as Vinay Dubey, was apprehended from Airoli in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday night, an official said.

After handing him over to the Mumbai police, he will be in custody of the Azad Maidan police, where the process of registering an offence against him was going on, he said.

Dubey had uploaded a video of his on social media account in which he had demanded the Maharashtra government make travel arrangements for migrants, who are stranded due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown and want to go back to their native places, he said.

He had also tweeted about the issue and called for a national-level protest if trains are not arranged till April 18 to ferry migrants workers to their native places, he said.

The police suspect his social media messages contributed to the protest by more than 1,000 migrant workers, most of them from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, near suburban Bandra railway station.

They were demanding that the state government make transport arrangements so that they can go back to their native towns and villages.