CHENNAI: The Tambaram city police arrested a 42-year-old construction worker from Jharkhand for allegedly circulating a video spreading rumours that migrant workers from North India were being attacked in Tamil Nadu.
On March 3, a video was circulated on social media in which labourers belonging to Jharkhand were seen complaining about their plight in Chennai.
“The group was working at a construction site and they claimed they faced lot of problems at their working places in Chennai as they were told to go back to their home state. It also claimed the labourers were beaten in bus and train when they attempted to go back to their native places. They also alleged they were denied medical treatment in hospitals,” said A Amalraj, Commissioner of Police, Tambaram city police.
Several news outlets in north India took the video and broadcast it as the plight of migrant labourers in the state. Intelligence officers found the content of the video was recorded in an under-construction building of a university in Maraimalai Nagar, a suburb. Police also found the video was uploaded by one Manoj Yadav of Jharkhand and his friends who were working in a construction site inside SRM university.
Manoj Yadav and six others in the video left the construction site after a verbal confrontation with the superior. The police traced Manoj and recorded a video of him confessing the video was fake and shot for more popularity. He confessed he had been working at various places in Tamil Nadu for the past 25 years.
Police said that based on the complaint given by the project manager of the site, a case was registered in Maraimalai Nagar Police station. He was arrested and remanded in judicial custody, said police.