KOZHIKODE: The City Police on Tuesday said the scary WhatsApp messages that resulted in the fleeing of migrant labourers from Kerala were found to have originated and circulated from WhatsApp numbers in West Bengal. The exact source of the messages or motive behind the scare campaign have not been confirmed. City Police Commissioner S Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar said the cyber cell was probing the case. “We need to ascertain the real intention behind the fake campaign,” he said.
Meanwhile, the district administration has initiated steps to mitigate the crisis by convincing panic-struck migrants there is nothing to be scared of and the messages are all fake. District Collector U V Jose met migrant labourers working at various hotels in the city on Tuesday.
Mahesh Kumar, Rural SP M K Pushkaran and RDO Shamin Sebastian were present. “Around 500 migrant labourers have left the district in the past two to three days. Three hotels have stopped their business owing to staff shortage,” Jose said. “Following the circulation of the messages, family members of the migrant labourers are forcing them to return to their home states. A government-level intervention is required to tackle the issue,” the Collector said.