A man living in Chennai has been arrested by a team of Uttar Pradesh police for making alleged ‘derogatory’ remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to reports, the 62-year-old man has been identified as Manmohan Mishra, a native of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, and has been accused of making the alleged derogatory remarks on his YouTube channel. Mishra, who also goes by Munmohan Mishra on his YouTube channel, has reportedly lived in Chennai for 35 years.
According to The New Indian Express, police officials say a few UP people took objection to his videos where he criticised PM Modi and filed a complaint at the Kotwali police station in UP. The report adds that Mishra used to make the videos in Hindi and though he lived in Chennai, his videos became popular in Uttar Pradesh. However, on YouTube, Mishra has just about 600 subscribers on his YouTube channel and most of his videos have a low number of views — his most recent videos have just 1-2 views. None of his videos have more than 200 views.
In many videos, Mishra has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led government over its policies and also the government’s handling of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also has made videos describing several conspiracy theories about Narendra Modi, the United States of America, and India’s relations with neighbours China and Pakistan. He has called the PM a mafia head and that he has destabilized the country. In a video dated August 13, one of his most recent, Mishra refers to the Godhra incident during the Gujarat 2002 riots and alleged that Prime Minister Modi “used the deaths of those killed in that violence to ask for votes and became chief minister of the state again.”
According to reports, the action against Manmohan has been taken for a six-month-old video where he has called for the Prime Minister’s resignation. The Hindu reports that Mishra had once participated in a protest at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and had allegedly circulated videos against PM Modi.
Arul Santhosa Muthu, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in Madhavaram told TNM that the Kotwali police from Uttar Pradesh reached Chennai two days ago to make the arrest. The Kotwali police had informed the Madhavaram police station before taking Mishra into custody. The ACP told TNM that Mishra had then been produced in front of the Madhavaram Magisterial Court by the Uttar Pradesh police where they were granted transit remand. It is not yet known under what charges Mishra has been arrested.