Agartala, Nov 14: Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma on Saturday said that “politically motivated misinformation” churned by a section of people are tarnishing the state’s name and are the sole reason behind incidents like Amravati violence in Maharashtra.

Currently put on lockdown, Amravati city in Maharashtra, about 681 km east to its capital city Mumbai, has seen spats of violence and stone pelting, mostly conducted by the minority community, in protest against the alleged attacks on them in Tripura.

Condemning the violence, Varma said that a wrong message is going to the rest of India about Tripura and its image due to some “fake news and misinformation” shared and circulated by a section of vested interest groups in the state.

“Attempts are being made to destroy peace and harmony in Tripura by a group to earn political mileage. This is not how we do politics in here…they are spreading communal misinformation to make a backdoor entry into the Tripura political scenario,” Varma said.

The Tripura Police has last week booked four Supreme Court lawyers under the contentious Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and had sent complaints to Twitter against over hundred profiles for allegedly spreading misinformation regarding attacks on minorities.

Last Saturday, police lodged FIR against two journalists who had come from Mumbai for allegedly “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion”.

The journalists – Sammriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha – on the other hand alleged that the cops came to their hotel early on Saturday morning and “intimidated” them. They said they were covering the recent incidents of violence in the state.

Post Durga Puja — October 11-15 — minorities’ in Tripura alleged that their religious leaders and places of religion has come under attack either by unknown miscreants or Hindu right-wing organisations as a retaliation to attacks on Hindus in the neighbouring Bangladesh during Durga Puja there.

However, Varma said, “No mosque has been burnt in Tripura. These groups are circulating pictures and videos of some other incidents that happened in other countries. People of Tripura know that these are politically motivated.”

Varma’s attacks can be connected to the recent incursions by the Trinamool Congress into Tripura that has fielded candidates in the upcoming urban local bodies elections and have expressed interest in participating the 2023 Tripura Assembly elections.

The Trinamool Congress has moved the National Human Rights Commission regarding the alleged communal violence in the state.

The Tripura chapter of Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind, highest authority body of the Muslims in the state, had also claimed of at least 13 instances of violence on its religious places and instances of arsons on houses of minority people.

On Saturday, the Home Ministry dismissed reports of vandalism at a mosque in the BJP-ruled state.

“There have been news reports that have been circulating that a mosque in Kakraban area of Gomati district in Tripura has been damaged and vandalised. These news reports are fake and are a complete misrepresentation of facts,” a statement read.

The two journalists arrested were also reporting on a violence allegedly conducted by a group of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Hindu right wing organisation, at a mosque in Panisagar area of the North Tripura district of the state.

The case against them was filed by a VHP supporter named Kanchan Das.

Both of them may be questioned in a fake news circulation case, sources said.