CHENNAI: Manmohan Mishra’s teary-eyed meeting with his daughter after three long years lasted all of 10 minutes, under the watchful glare of four police personnel from Uttar Pradesh, and amid the din of a railway station in Madhya Pradesh.
The 62-year-old, arrested by UP police in Chennai for uploading a YouTube video critical of the Union government’s handling of the Covid crisis, met his daughter for a brief while on Sunday as the train chugged into a station in Madhya Pradesh, on the way to UP.
The police of the northern state believe that the video would create panic among the public as he was "spreading unscientific information" on the pandemic.
On Sunday when the train crossed Madhya Pradesh, he met his daughter for a brief moment. Manmohan, hailing from UP, was living for decades now in Chennai, but was popular in his home state for his political videos in Hindi. "Though my father talks harshly and angrily, he knows his limits and speaks the truth alone. It was hard to see some media houses in Tamil Nadu criticise my father without understanding him," says Manmohan's daughter, who is settled in Madhya Pradesh.
Manmohan's relative, who did not want to be named, said that the arrest is because of the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh. Manmohan's own YouTube channel is not popular. But his videos were posted in other channels which are popular in the northern state. One such channel is 'Loktantra tv' on YouTube where his videos have been viewed between 75,000 to 1,00,000 times.
"In a recent video my father spoke about the oxygen shortage in the country and how the Union Government was incompetent in providing the neccesary amenities to the people. The video has been removed from social media," said Manmohan's daughter.
Quoting his lawyer, the daughter said that it was for this video that the police have taken suo motu cognisance. After being taken back to UP in a train, he was produced in Jaunpur court by the UP police on Monday. He could not get bail and was remanded in two days judicial custody.
‘Unscientific information’
Ajay Kumar Sahni, Superintendent of Police, Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, told reporters there on Monday, "Mishra had uploaded a video on social media which contained baseless and unscientific information about covid. The video was getting viral. Anticipating that the video could create panic among people, the Kotwali police took suo moto cognizance of the matter."
The Kotwali police has charged him for intent to incite persons to commit any offence, publishing rumour and under the Epidemic Act for disobeying regulations under the Act.
Soon after the arrest of Manmohan Mishra, several of his followers had commented on the YouTube videos extending their support for the man. Several had taken to other social media platforms questioning the arrest of Mishra and asking to release him.
Manmohan when he reached Chennai in the mid 1980s started off as a loadmen in a factory, then worked as a delivery person in a courier company before he started a courier company of his own in the late 90s. His close relatives remembered Mishra sharing the stories of how he would sleep out of the courier shop since he had no money to rent a house and how he would save 75 paisa per day for food.
Manmohan runs a charity, has heart condition
Manmohan's daughter explained that the ten minutes were not sufficient to express our thoughts. "When we met I could not even hug my father. We cried for sometime and my father asked me not to worry and that he is being jailed for speaking out the truth. My father has heart problems and suffered a heart attack a few years ago. So I asked him not to get tense as it might affect him. He runs a charity trust where he feeds hundreds of people in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu," said Manmohan's daughter, who did not want to be named.
(With inputs from Lucknow correspondent)