Dakshina Kannada police uncover false social media posts and fake complaint

Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police K. Arun has said that the police uncovered five instances of spreading false and communally sensitive hate messages aimed at creating unrest in the district.

The police also found that a complaint over an attempt to murder was fake. In all, the police registered six cases and arrested the accused in some cases.

The Superintendent of Police said in a statement that some individuals, groups, and organisations posted false information on social media to create communal tension in the district. People should check authenticity of the information before sharing the same on social media. They should also ignore inflammatory social posts, which would help prevent spreading of false information, he said.

Regarding the murder of sand transporter Abdul Rahiman on May 27 in the limits of Bantwal Rural police station, the Venur police booked one Janardhan Poojary for posting false information in his Facebook post. The motive behind the murder as mentioned by Poojary in his post was wrong.

On July 5, the Puttur Town police registered a case in connection with a video of a 17-year-old boy and a girl that was circulated on social media with an intention to create communal discord. The video mentioned that the boy and the girl were from different religion, but a probe revealed that the two were from the same religion.

Fake complaint

On August 26, the Bantwal Rural police arrested Umar Farooq Nandavara after investigation revealed that he gave a fake complaint against two motorcycle-borne men who attempted to murder him, near Sajipanadu, on June 11. Later, the police booked one Ashraf Talapady for his inflammatory social media post which said that “an innocent Muslim (Farooq Nandavara) was arrested by the police by foisting a false case” against him.

Meanwhile, the Puttur Town police booked a case against one Raju Sakleshpur for allegedly carrying a sword, near Boliyar Masjid, on July 14. One Ashraf Bavu Puttur posted on social media that Raju did so because he was influenced by an inflammatory speech of an RSS leader. The police registered a case against Bavu Puttur on August 5 for posting false information on social media.

The police said that it was wrongly projected on social media that a person who came in a scooter inappropriately touched a woman from another religion while she was walking down the Panemangaluru Rice Mill on August 20. An investigation by the Bantwal Town police revealed that the accused was a minor boy who belonged to the same religion as the woman. The police produced the boy before the Juvenile Justice Board, which ordered to keep the boy in the Observation Home.