The cyber crime police in Hyderabad on Wednesday arrested a man for posting a fake video on social media and spreading rumours about burglars and kidnappers, despite the police actively saying that the videos were fake.
The accused was identified as 27-year-old Eshwar Singh alias Akhi Singh, a resident of Mallepally.
“The video contained taglines such as Kids Kidnappers alias Afzal Sagar (Mallepally Division). The posts created panic and the rumors induced other persons to commit an offence which is against the public tranquility,” CCS DCP, Avinash Mohanty told reporters.
“The same post was shared by others. The posts containing such false news and rumours are creating panic among citizens. In spite of clarifying about such rumours through social media by the police department, he deliberately spread such rumours. Hence he was booked and held,” police added.
This came a day after the South Zone police in Hyderabad along with the Commissioner’s Task Force arrested 14 people in connection with the murder of a transgender person at Chandrayangutta on May 26.
Earlier this week, a group of transgender women were attacked by a mob who believed that they were part of a dacoit gang out to kidnap children, based on WhatsApp forwards. One of the women was killed by the mob.
The South Zone police swung into action and detained close to 40 persons, following which an investigation was conducted and 14 people were sent to judicial remand, including one minor.
According to the police, they also laid blame on ‘social media’ reporters in the old city area, who extensively circulated the fake news about the child kidnapping gangs.
“The biggest challenge for the police was to bring the situation under control and to ensure peace and tranquillity. Keeping in view the severity of the episode, the teams were deployed to various sensitive places to prevent any further untoward incident from occurring. The teams from all police stations in the old city have conducted patrolling in each and every area, lanes and by lanes to ensure harmony,” the police said in a press release.
Speaking to reporters, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said, “We have already identified a few fake websites and we have also identified people who have been sharing and spreading fake news and rumours. There is a vested interest. Some of these people are downloading videos from other countries like Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka, Burma etc, which has nothing to do with Hyderabad. A group has been identified, two cases have been registered and we will arrest them soon.”
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