Following the lynching of a mentally unstable woman who was dubbed a child-lifter on social media groups in Singrauli, the Madhya Pradesh Police launched a crackdown on WhatsApp groups spreading false rumours in the district. And the crackdown is showing progress.
On Friday—nearly 10 days after the woman's lynching—police arrested three men, including the administrator of a WhatsApp group, for allegedly posting fake news about the gang-rape of a girl by 13 men and subsequent castration of a youth.
Singrauli, the remote eastern district of Madhya Pradesh bordering Varanasi, is called the 'Power Capital of India', with over a dozen coal-based power plants producing over 25,000MW of electricity. The district that has been developing as an industrial hub has been in the news for fake news and subsequent lynchings.
After many reports of fake news and rumours spreading on social media, the local police had formed a social media watch cell called Cyber Suraksha Samiti to keep a vigil on groups spreading rumours. It was this watch group, which included citizens, that informed police that a message was being circulated on social media that a girl was caught in a compromising position in Khutar village of Singrauli and was gang-raped by 13 men. The group also castrated a man who was found with her. To make the message look authentic, a photograph was also attached with the message.
After the message was reported by the social media watch group, the inspector in-charge of Waidhan police station, Manish Tripathi, visited the village, only to find that the incident portrayed on social media was fake. Following this, he arrested the administrator of a WhatsApp group called 'Evil of Urjanchal', Surendra Diwedi. Police also arrested two more people—Ghulam Raza and Rajesh Diwedi—who posted the message and forwarded it. All the three arrests were made under Sections 353 (2) and 453 (2) (6) of IPC and Section 67 of IT Act. Section 67(B) of IT Act prescribes the punishment for publishing or transmitting material depicting children in a sexually explicit act in an electronic form.
Police in Singrauli has started an operation called Operation Yatharth (in reality) to counter the menace of viral fake news in the district. The district have seen many cases of viral videos and fake news on social media causing extreme trouble for people.