Vinay Dubey detained over social media messages linked to Bandra gathering

New Delhi: Mumbai Police on Tuesday (April 14) night detained one Vinay Dubey from Navi Mumbai over messages on his social media accounts which reportedly contributed to the gathering of a large number of migrant workers in suburban Bandra in the afternoon. The man was apprehended from Airoli in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday night.

After handing him over to the Mumbai police, Vinay Dubey will be in the custody of the Azad Maidan police, where the process of registering an offence against him was going on, an official told PTI.

Dubey had allegedly uploaded a video of his own 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 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, the official 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. 

Earlier in the day at 10 o'clock, the Prime Minister's announcement was made to extend the lockdown till May 3, but after six hours, thousands gathered in a city like Mumbai. Notably, the highest number of coronavirus cases are in Maharashtra, and Mumbai has already lost over 100 lives due to coronavirus and has several COVID-19 hotspots. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and expressed concern over gathering in Bandra. He said that such events would weaken the country's fight against the coronavirus. 

Offering his full support to the Maharashtra government, Shah said the state administration needs to stay vigilant to avoid such incidents.