West Singhbhum police have arrested a 45-year-old man associated with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from Gutusai village under Chaibasa Muffasil police station.
DSP headquarters Chaibasa, Prakash Soy at Chaibasa said that the accused lekhnath Nishad was nabbed for spreading on social media (WhatsApp) rumours about a group of child lifters.
“I was surprised when I got a WhatsApp message on July 7 from a mobile number -9304227930- informing about an alert issued reportedly by Jharkhand Police. The alert message warned against opening of doors at night on hearing sound of a crying child or close doors on seeing movement of a group of persons near village,” said the DSP headquarter Chaibasa.
The police officer further said after he read the message he came into action and started investigation and found that no such alert has been issued by Jharkhand Police.
“We asked our IT cell in Chaibasa to track the mobile number which was found to be that of lekhnath Nishad. We traced lekhnath and nabbed him from his residence today. On being interrogated, he claimed that he had got the message from some senders and was sending it to others for public cause. We then arrested him under section 290/153 (A)/505 (1) of IPC for spreading rumours,” said the police official.
Concerned over past incidents of lynching incidents, police had been spreading awareness against such rumour mongers. A total of 10 persons have so far been lynched over child lifting rumours in different parts of Kolhan region. Four cattle traders were killed in Rajnagar block of Seraikela-Kharsawan on May 18 while three youths (including two brothers) were lynched at Nagadih in Bagbera (in East Singhbhum) on the same day night, an elderly lady who was fatally injured in the lynching at Nagadih died a month later at Tata Main hospital.