Several media houses spread misleading news that a hawker named Avdesh Dubey was arrested for mimicking PM Modi and other politicians. He was arrested for illegal hawking in trains.
A viral video which has been doing the rounds on social media for the past few days, in which a hawker named Avdhesh Dubey is selling toy in different entertaining ways on the train.
You can see the video here:
Several News Broadcasters including Times Now, Indian Express and Business standard have covered this news by showing misleading headlines that train hawker arrested for mimicking politicians, including the prime minister Modi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Sonia, and Rahul Gandhi.
NDTV tweeted "Train Hawker Sent To 10-Day Judicial Custody For Mimicking Politicians".
The claim is also getting viral on Twitter. A user name Arnab Ray tweeted the article by Times Now and wrote "Why India doesn't deserve great things. This man is a legend".
According to sources in the Railway Ministry, Avdesh Dubey was arrested because he had no vendor license to sell the goods. He was apprehended during unauthorize vending in train no 17204 sleeper coach at Surat Railway station and booked under multiple sections of railway act including CR 1228/19 U/S and section 144 A (prohibition on hawking and begging), 145 B (spreading nuisance or using abusive language in railway carriage), 147 RA (unlawful entry into a train). He was produced before a Judicial Magistrate in Surat court where he accepted his guilt. Avdesh Dubey was fined Rs 3,500 and was sent to 10 days judicial custody. ANI has also tweeted about this:
9 more people were also arrested for unauthorized hawking including Avdhesh. He has been caught many times in the past as well for the same reason.
Avdesh originally hails from Varanasi and migrated to Valsad two years ago. He sells toys in trains between Vapi and Surat. He shot to fame after a video of him selling toys in the train went viral after it was uploaded on YouTube on 23 May, by Gujarati stand-up comedian Manan Desai, who personally shot the video in the train.
Stand-up comedian Manan Desai who is part of the ‘Comedy Factory’, told The Quint that he spoke to Avdesh when the latter was in police custody and he sounded quite relaxed.
“He told me, ‘‘Mananbhai you don’t need to worry, this is a routine for us and we face this once every two months. They will detain us for a few hours and then let us go.’ But then he called me at 6 pm and told me that he was produced before a magistrate.”
Manan also said that he had shot the video in February this year, but he didn’t release it immediately as the video was released last week after the election results were declared. He said that he released it after 4 months because his content was politically biased, and he had to ensure it didn’t violate the Moral Code of Conduct (MCC). He also said that he had got Dubey’s consent to release the video.
Meanwhile, netizens are extremely annoyed at the act of arresting him and sentencing him such the punishment. There are many such tweets, requesting the authorities to free Avdhesh, and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to ensure his immediate release.
Conclusion: Avdesh Dubey was arrested by Railway Protection Force (RPF) for illegally hawking in trains and not because he mocked politicians, especially PM Modi as suggested by many media houses.
Update: Railways have also issued a clarification about the Avdesh's attack.
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Himani Joshi
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Bachelor of Journalism & Mass Communication
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