Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy took to Twitter on Saturday asking people to be cautious of messages that talk of child abductors on the loose in Karnataka.
The Chief Minister's word of advice comes days after a 26-year-old Rajasthani labourer was lynched in Chamarajpet in Bengaluru. In connection with the case, police have filed a case against 'unknown' persons who circulated fake graphic videos of a gang of child lifters who killed children. These messages, which were spreading on the social messaging platform WhatsApp, spread panic among residents.
I request Public not to pay heed to rumours on child kidnappers. News of child kidnapper gangs is false. I have asked police forces to be on strict vigil on this issue.I request the public to be responsible &their posts shouldn't create panic&disturbance tothe peaceloving society
— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) May 26, 2018
One of the messages contained a collage of several dismembered bodies of children. One of the pictures in the collage also has a person wearing a mask harvesting organs. The picture contains the message: “All mothers and fathers, beware and share this message. Beware of child abductors. A gang of child abductors from Kerala are now in Karnataka and are harvesting organs of children.”
Police are looking to curtail the spread of these messages which triggered a series of mob attacks in the city. The brutal incident in Chamarajpet was followed by another incident in Anjanappa Garden, in which two men, Manjunath and Rajkumar, were beaten up by a mob.
The incidents in Bengaluru follow the pattern observed in Tamil Nadu and Telengana, where paranoid mobs brutally lynched people, who they assumed to be child abductors.
The police are hoping to spread awareness in the city about these messages by informing residents in person about questioning the authenticity of these messages. Through offline meetings and announcements via Hoysala patrol vehicles, police hope that residents do not believe messages designed to spread fear.
