The Uttar Pradesh police have booked a man on criminal charges for using Twitter to appeal for an oxygen cylinder for his ailing grandfather.

Leading Indian publication, The Wire reported that the Amethi police lodged an FIR against Shashank Yadav, for allegedly circulating a rumor with the intent to cause fear or alarm. Shashank had not mentioned if his grandfather had the coronavirus.

According to the police, Yadav was spreading false and misleading information against the Uttar Pradesh government.

“It was found during the inquiry that because of the accused’s false tweet, several persons made allegations against the government,” the police told the newspaper.

Yadav had made the SOS tweet on Monday and had tagged actor Sonu Sood. His friend amplified the message and engaged journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani of The Wire.

In return, Arfa retweeted his message and also tagged Union minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani for help. None of the messages mentioned coronavirus.

Irani responded to the tweet 30 minutes later, saying that he tried Yadav multiple times but he was unavailable.

She added that she had asked the district magistrate and the Amethi police to follow up.

It turned out that Ankit’s grandfather had passed away. He passed on the information to Sherwani who then informed the minister. Irani expressed her condolences and said: “Kept calling his number, we all did including CMO, Amethi police...I just wish he had picked up his phone.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Amethi District Magistrate Arun Kumar responded to Sherwani’s original tweet, sharing the Chief Medical Officer’s report, which said that Yadav’s grandfather was not a Covid patient and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Durgapur.

Later that evening, the police responded to Yadav’s tweet and said the 88-year-old man did not have the coronavirus but died of a heart attack at 8 pm. “At this time it is not only condemnable but also a legal offense to post such type of fear-generating posts on social media,” the police said.

What the Amethi administration failing to understand is that Covid is not the only disease that causes breathing problems.