At least seven persons were arrested from different parts of the State for spreading COVID-19 rumours including communally senstive ones, on social media in the last 24 hours.In Rourkela, Nasim Akhtar of the Quresihi Mohalla area under Plant Site police limits was arrested on Monday for allegedly posting a fake message on his Facebook account. Police on Sunday came across the post which stated that 400 Hindu devotees are stranded at Vaishnodevi temple and 145 of them were affected with coronavirus. They traced Nasim and arrested him.
He has been charged with causing enmity between groups on religious ground, outraging religious feelings, intentionally provoking breach of peace and misuse of the internet platform.Another person of Angul was arrested by Rengali police on similar charges. On Sunday, the accused Debraj Behera of Rengali village had posted on Facebook that a man of his village returned from Delhi and had not reported himself. When police checked the veracity of the post, it was found out that no such person had visited Delhi. The accused was forwarded to court on Monday.
Similarly in Malkangiri, Podia police arrested one Laxmikant Tripathy on the charges of trying to disrupt communal harmony on Sunday. The accused had created a Facebook page ‘Corona Jihad’ and posted communally sensitive posts in it. SP Rishikesh D Khilari said the post was aimed at creating panic among residents.
Four more persons were arrested in Keonjhar on Sunday for circulating fake news. They had edited a TV grab about the first positive case from Bhadrak and shared it in a WhatsApp group claiming that the person belonged to Keonjhar district. This had led to panic among locals who brought the matter to the notice of police and the news channel. Subsequently, the channel lodged a police complaint which led to the arrest of Manas Kumar Mohanta, Suryanaryan Ghana, Trilochan Barik and Jitu Pradhan, all belonging to Keonjhar town.