Bihar CM links Jamui arrests to accused's reels as police widen social media crackdown
Bihar CM Samrat Choudhary said the Jamui harassment accused would have evaded arrest without their reels, as police registered FIRs against about 120 accounts and stepped up action on social media misuse.
Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who also holds the home portfolio, said the men accused in the Jamui sexual harassment case would have escaped arrest had they not posted their own videos online. Speaking at a gathering days after the incident, he remarked that people now live more in reels than in reality.
His comments came during a week in which videos brought two separate incidents of sexual harassment in Bihar to public attention. In Jamui, a group of men accosted two teenagers on a motorcycle, harassed the girl and assaulted the boy. In Samastipur, a minor was harassed by a group of men. The circulation of the clips led the police to arrest six people in the first case and four in the second.
Since then, however, the police have also moved against those sharing such content. FIRs have been registered against roughly 120 social media accounts for circulating a viral video that revealed the identity of the minor victim in the Jamui case. Advisories have also been issued warning against sharing posts related to the Samastipur incident.
The action is not confined to this week. According to a senior official, the state police, working with the Cyber Crime Prevention Unit, registered 475 FIRs across Bihar in the first half of the year for social media misuse. About 103 people were arrested under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. More than 450 takedown notices were sent to platforms, leading to the removal or blocking of over 1,300 posts and URLs and the deactivation of more than 500 fake accounts.
Posts showing firearms attract a similar response. Between May 1 and July 14, 2026, 102 cases were registered under the Arms Act and the Information Technology Act for brandishing weapons online, with 130 people arrested and 40 illegal weapons seized. Patna, Gopalganj, Naugachhia and East Champaran recorded the highest number of violations.
Officials said FIRs filed over weapons displays are linked to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems and the National Intelligence Grid, and that advisories are used to caution young people about how such records can affect jobs, examinations and document verification. Using licensed firearms in such videos leads to permanent cancellation of the licence, they added.