A 27-year-old man was arrested on Friday for allegedly circulating a video claiming to have encountered a lion in a village in Maharashtra's Nagpur district, police said.
The police arrested Pratap Amarlal Madavi, a resident of Budhla village in Kalmeshwar tehsil, for circulating the video and creating panic in the area, an official said.
In the video, Madavi claimed to have encountered a lion and urged the people of the village to remain vigilant. The video went viral on social media on Wednesday and Thursday and created panic among people, he said.
The forest department initiated a probe and found that the claim was false. A complaint was lodged, and the accused was taken into custody, the official said.
A case under section 505 (making or circulating false statements, rumours, or information with specific intent) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered, he added.
Published 06 October 2023, 16:42 IST