A social media influencer was arrested by the Kolkata Police’s Cyber Wing in connection with his post about TMC MP Mahua Moitra allegedly smoking e-cigarettes inside Parliament.

According to the police, Shashank Singh was arrested at midnight but was released on bail on Monday.

Singh’s X handle, BefittingFacts, which has 456k followers, had uploaded the post on December 11. “TMC MP Mahua Moitra smoking e-cigarette inside Parliament,” Singh had written and attached a video of BJP MP Anurag Thakur complaining to the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla about the alleged e-cigarette smoking.

An FIR was filed against the influencer based on a complaint filed by the TMC State General Secretary, IT & Social Media Wing, Nilanjan Das.

Das had filed a complaint with Cyber Wing of Kolkata Police, accusing BefittingFacts of circulating “fake, fabricated and defamatory posts”. He alleged that the posts were “manipulated, misleading, and factually incorrect”, and “appear to be part of a deliberate attempt to spread disinformation”.

According to police sources, Singh was detained at 1 am and later shown as arrested for the post. The police remained tight-lipped about further investigation or details related to the case.

Reacting to the arrest, BJP IT Cell in-charge Amit Malviya took to X while accusing the TMC of attacking “freedom of speech”.

“In a shocking midnight swoop, Mamata Banerjee’s administration arrested BefittingFacts simply for criticising the TMC over its mishandling of the Messi event and for calling out how West Bengal was being maligned. This blatant attack on free speech shows how intolerant the TMC has become of any dissenting voice. We have since ensured that he has secured bail. Let this be a clear lesson to the TMC… stop targeting freedom of speech and harassing common citizens for holding opinions against a discredited and insecure government,” read the post.