Fake news that 12 migrants hanged in Tamil Nadu: BJP man, journos booked

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Pollice has booked BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, Prashant Umrao, and two journalists in a case of alleged spreading of misinformation on the Internet claiming that North Indian migrant labourers were “hanged” in the southern state, The Indian Express reported.

A news report, allegedly fake, appeared in the Dainik Bhaskar and around the same time that Umrao took to Twitter to say that 12 Bihar workers were hanged to death in Tamil Nadu for speaking Hindi. Later, one of the booked journalists, Mohammed Tanvir, posted a series of Tweets on false instances of North Indian workers being attacked in the state.

This was after the birthday celebrations of MK Stalin, which many North Indian leaders attended, including Bihar Deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav. A call was made at the birthday party for a united front against the BJP.

After the news spread through WhatsApp groups of the migrant labourers, panic arose, a TN police officer said, adding that many online and TV news media started airing the story. Then Bihar BJP took it up and raised it on social media. There are a dozen verified BJP handles which have lakhs of followers and were actively spreading fake reports, amplifying the attack-on-migrant-labourers narrative.

After BJP raised the matter, the Bihar government informed on Saturday that it sent a team to TN to take stock, while the Jharkhand administration said that it would also do the same.

However, the TN administration issued a statement on Saturday stating that all north Indian workers are staying safe and peacefully in the state.

The booked three- 2nd journalist is the editor of Dainik Bhasker- were charged with IPC Sections on offences of promoting enmity and disharmony between different groups, police said and added that they are gathering info on other people who are spreading rumours, aiming to cause panic among migrant labourers.