Rumour mongers on social media may not get away with their communally-sensitive posts this election season as the Jharkhand police have incorporated latest technology to trace the creators of such posts and nab them.
Not only this, the police have also set up special IT surveillance cells of their own to monitor how such posts were spread and who all were involved in spreading them.
“Communally sensitive posts on social media have been the main cause of disharmony in the past. Keeping an eye on the role of social media in fueling communal hatred and violence, we have incorporated latest IT technology to not only intercept such content but also trace the original creator of the post and the persons actively involved in sharing them,” said ML Meena, Additional Director General of Police (Operations) cum spokesperson of Jharkhand police.
Jharkhand, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) witnessed maximum incidents of communal flare ups in 2014. Social media, especially Facebook and android messaging app WhatsApp have proved handy in the past for notorious elements who wanted to spread communal tension during festivals, police sources said.
Several incidents of prohibited meat thrown outside religious places have flared communal clashes in the past. During investigation, police found that most of the information regarding such incidents was spread on WhatsApp.
Apart from keeping a scanner on social media, the state police have also beefed up security to avert and tackle untoward incidents at and around polling booths during elections.
“We have categorized our booths under hyper sensitive, sensitive and moderately sensitive. Since several booths will come under Maoist-affected areas, we will have to be on our toes to avert any attack planned by the rebels,” said Meena.
According to figures with the Ministry of Home Affairs 18 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are Left Wing Extremism-affected. Apart from the main CPI (Maoist) group, there are at least 17 splinter outfits active in Jharkhand.
These groups will be on the lookout to create panic during the polling for the 17th General Elections here.
While the police refused to mention the number of police personnel who would be deployed across the state during polls, they said that sufficient forces will be deployed in each booth and reinforcements from other states will be brought to ensure there were no security lapses.