Two men in their twenties were arrested from Pramodgarh in Rajarhat and Kestopur in connection with the circulation of fake coronavirus messages using the template of a Bengali news channel, police said.

The men were picked up from their houses late on Wednesday, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.

Rakesh Roy, 23, who works with a car rental agency, and his friend Prosanta Mallick, 21, a driver by profession, had morphed the logo and the template of the news channel and used them to post the fake messages, the officer said.

The men had even used the name and photograph of a reporter from the channel, the officer said. The arrests were made after a channel’s representative lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police station in Salt Lake.

The men had used two smartphones to download the news channel’s logo and template, an officer of the police station said. “They then used the phones to circulate the messages. The contents ranged from fake death toll to fake new cases in the state. It sparked panic among people. This was done to spread panic and malign the channel.”

The inspector-in-charge of the police station, Bidit Mondal, said the two were tracked down through the original IP address — the electronic device’s fingerprint that is used to access the Internet. “The fake messages and posts had been circulated thousands of times”.

The two have been booked under various IPC sections , including 500 (defamation), 505 (public mischief) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation).

The charges carry a maximum punishment of six years in jail and/or fine.

A Salt Lake court sent both to police custody for four days.