Two people arrested, many on police radar for spreading rumours on Tripura CM's divorce

However, the main accused Anupam Pal, who allegedly triggered the controversy, is still on the run.

Police arrested school teacher Saikat Talapatra from Agartala airport in the evening when he was waiting for a Kolkata bound flight. During interrogation he admitted his involvement in the crime.

Talapatra was going out of the state on the excuse of some illness. However, the doctors he had sought advice from, were not convinced that he needed treatment outside Tripura, police said.

“Talapatra made obscene comment on his facebook wall against the chief minister and propagated baseless information, which hampered the private and public life of the chief minister. Earlier, also he had done the same thing against several other people, and cases of illegal activities and harassment were registered against him,” police stated.

Ahead of Talaparta’s arrest, North Tripura police detained a constable Jamal Hossain on the charge of sharing unverified social media posts against Chief Minster Biplab Kumar Deb. Hossain had been posted on the security duty of a CPI (M) MLA. Later, he was released on bail.

Police is working to track down others in the network, sources said.

The editor of a local television channel and senior journalist Pranab Sarkar has also filed a case against Pal for propagating false information about his association with Sarkar and his channel.

Sarkar has also filed a separate complaint against a news portal for broadcasting false news of his involvement in social media campaign against Deb’s personal life.

Another FIR was filed in a West Agartala police station by one Sunit Sarkar against an owner of news website Soumen Sarkar, alleging motivated rumour mongering and spreading false and objectionable information against the chief minister and his wife under section 120 (B), 501, 509, 384 of IPC and 57th section of IT Act.

According to police, as many as nine persons have so far been identified in the racket, which started a campaign based on a false divorce document, apparently to malign the chief minister's image. During the investigations, involvement of some top order BJP leaders, oppositions parties and some influential people has been revealed allegedly to disturb the government.

“It is believed that the attempt was made as part of a well-designed conspiracy only to tarnish the image of the chief minister and malign his government by a vested quarter. However, we are working to crack down the entire network,” said a senior police officer here today.

Last week, a fake post about a divorce suit filed against Deb by his wife in Delhi's Tis Hazari Court went viral on social media. CM's wife condemned the post saying it was a dirty rumour spread out of political vindictiveness. Chief Minister Deb also condemned the incident and said a deep-rooted conspiracy was behind the social media campaign on his divorce.