The police have registered 11 cases and arrested three persons for spreading rumours on the safety of migrant workers in Tamil Nadu, said Director General of Police C. Sylendra Babu.
The DGP, who chaired a meeting with representatives of industries in Coimbatore in the presence of senior police officers on Thursday, said special teams of the Tamil Nadu police were also camping in places including Delhi, Bhopal, Bihar and Patna to arrest persons who circulated fake news -- that migrant workers were not safe or were under attack in Tamil Nadu.
“Why such videos, some of which were not even related to Tamil Nadu, were circulated, their intention and other aspects will be known after the arrest of those involved,” he said.
The DGP said the cyber forensics division of the police is equipped to trace the origins of fake videos and the offenders will be identified. The Bihar police have also made arrests.
Mr. Babu said the police cracked one case on Wednesday, which was related to a fake video circulated a day before.
“We [police] approached the person who made the video, discreetly, and asked him if he could make similar ones. He agreed to do it. The person told us that he was not paid for his previous work,” he said.
Similarly, in a video, a man sleeping on the side of a road at Tambaram was portrayed as a migrant worker who was beaten up. “The person behind the video was also arrested,” said the DGP.
A nodal team headed by Avinash Kumar, Inspector General of Police (Administration), would be the single point of contact for the police from other States to check rumours about the safety of migrant workers in Tamil Nadu. The team would clarify doubts and pass information to the police in the States concerned.
According to Mr. Babu, the industries have been instructed to create WhatsApp groups and add migrant workers as liaison persons to share information. More patrols should be done in areas resided by migrant workers and more number of surveillance cameras should be installed.
The DGP said that the Holi festival coincided with the spread of rumours and the fleeing of migrant workers. Due to the spread of fake videos in their native States, the workers were called back by their parents and relatives. Messages in their in native languages would be made to tackle the issue, he said.
Asked if the offenders in involved in spreading fake news were associated with a particular political party, Mr. Babu said that some of them were linked to political parties.
