New Delhi police measures aim to halt rumour mill
› Our officers visited the spots and checked every call. Majority of them were genuine callers who were frightened on hearing the rumours. We detained those who deliberately caused panic. They will be arrested.
DEVESH SRIVASTAVA, joint commissioner of police (south)
NEW DELHI: As rumours of communal violence gripped parts of Delhi on Sunday evening, resulting in at least 1,880 calls related to rioting being made to the Police Control Room, law enforcement officials in the Capital have circulated detailed instructions on combating and dispelling false information.
These include guidelines for station house officers (SHO) at various police stations to quell local fears through loudspeakers and marches, use of social media by senior officers for mass messaging, and a crackdown on those who “deliberately cause panic”.
People directly aware of the matter said on Monday that SHOs across the city have been asked to record short videos and quickly circulate them on the influential WhatsApp groups of their areas to assure citizens that the reports of violence and rioting are not true. These videos are to be shot at the spot where the purported violence is taking place, therefore effectively assuaging the fears of the people.
This is to be accompanied by broadcasting messages on loudspeakers, sending out tweets through verified police accounts, and measures to isolate panicked residents from those who are purposely fuelling rumours and trying to incite them.
While the police arrested 41 persons for spreading rumours on Sunday, officers in the central intelligence agencies said they were trying to identify people behind certain social media accounts that started different trends on Sunday evening, propagating false stories of violence in the Capital.
An official, who deals with the cyber intelligence at North Block, said several hash tags were started by people from outside Delhi . At the Cyber Cell headquarters of the Delhi police, a police team is regularly monitoring the trending topics every hour. They are trying to identify the source of many fake tweets or messages that have gone viral. One such person (source) was arrested on Monday, he said, asking not to be named.
Delhi Police spokesperson Mandeep Singh Randhawa said that Abhishek Shukla was arrested from Nihal Vihar area for “deliberately circulating rumours” by posting details of incidents that did not happen. Shukla, police said, has around 10,000 followers on Twitter, who shared his posts believing them to be true. On Sunday evening, as rumours of rioting in many parts of the city spread across the national Capital, the police control room received at least 1,880 calls between 7pm and 9pm.
Many were from concerned citizens, while some were from mischief-makers, who are being identified and detained from across the city, Randhawa said.
With rumours spreading quickly on WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, shopkeepers hurriedly closed their shops in parts of west, south and south-east Delhi on Sunday evening. Many who believed the rumours also came out on the streets and stood together in groups.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) briefly closed the gates of seven Metro stations in west Delhi to prevent miscreants from entering the station premises. There was heavy security across the city with top police officers out on the streets after the rumours gained traction.
The rioting across parts of north-east Delhi last week claimed 47 lives, left at least 350 injured and led to destruction of property worth tens of crores. At least 1,000 vehicles were set on fire by the rioters.
An investigating officer, who did not wish to be named, said: “We checked Shukla’s posts and saw that he had posted details of fictitious incidents while claiming to have seen them. When we confronted him about this, it was found to be false. We are questioning him about the motive.”
The other persons who have been arrested from other parts of the city are those who called the police control room and claimed to be eyewitnesses of the riots, giving detailed descriptions of the violence (that did not occur) on Sunday night.
The ministry of home affairs did not comment on the rumours in Delhi.