Sacked Infy techie sent to 7-day police custody for Covid-19 prank

A sacked techie of software major Infosys was arrested for allegedly posting a prank tweet to spread coronavirus, a police officer said on Saturday.

"The accused -- Mujeeb Mohammed -- was arrested on Friday evening under Sections 505, 270 and 190 of the IPC for the social media post," Deputy Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Jain told IANS.

The accused was produced in a local court on Saturday which remanded him to police custody for seven days for interrogation and investigation into the cyber crime.

"As Mohammed is in our custody, we will interrogate him to ascertain why he posted such a tweet," said Jain.

Mohammed was first sacked and then arrested for tweeting, "Let's join hands, go out and sneeze with open mouth in public. Spread the virus. Spread the word to end the word."

The city-based IT behemoth had sacked Mohammed on Friday for the prank tweet, as it was against the company's code of conduct and its commitment to responsible social sharing.

The police picked up Mohammed, 38, from his residence in the city's northern suburb and seized two mobile phones and a laptop from his possession.

Mohammed has been a resident of this city for 25 years.

The police are yet to find any incriminating material from his gadgets.

"Mohammed did not give any reason for such a post but casually said ‘I just felt like posting it'. He was very casual," added Jain.

After the post, Mohammed gained notoriety in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic, creating a flutter on social media and in the office of his employer.

Before confirming that it was Mohammed who sent that tweet, Infosys had said on Thursday, "We are deeply concerned with an inappropriate post being attributed to an Infosys employee. We strongly reaffirm our commitment to responsible social sharing. Our preliminary enquiry, and discussions with our employees, suggests that this could be a case of a mistaken identity."

The company, however, promised to investigate the matter and confirmed on Friday that the tweet was posted indeed by one its own.

"Infosys has completed its investigation on the social media post by one of its employees and we believe that this is not a case of mistaken identity," the IT major confirmed on Friday to follow it up with the sacking. IANS