UP police to act against those spreading rumours
An alert has been issued in this regard and all the district police chiefs have been asked to curb such rumours
LUCKNOW: The state police authorities have asked the district police chiefs to taken stern action against those behind rumours on social media platforms about deaths supposedly being caused due to radiation spread by the testing of the 5G network, said state government officials on Sunday.
They said the UP police additional director general (ADG) (law and order) Prashant Kumar issued a detailed circular to the district police chiefs in this regard on Saturday and asked to curb such rumours. An alert has been issued in this regard.
A state home department official said the circular stated that some posts on social media spread the rumour that radiation from 5G testing was found to be the cause of death during post-mortem examination of some people who had supposedly succumbed to the Covid-19 infection in Italy.
He said an audio clip of a conversation had been shared on WhatsApp and other instant messaging platforms in which two people were heard talking about deaths caused supposed due to 5G radiation.
Moreover, false news of villagers uprooting telecom towers in Fatehpur, Siddarthnagar, Sultanpur and Gorakhpur districts of Uttar Pradesh due to fear of 5G radiation had been circulated by some people, he added.
The official said the ADG had directed the district police chiefs concerned to immediately contradict any social media post which claimed that the deaths were caused due to 5G radiation.
Stern action should be taken against the people involved in spreading such rumours to cause panic with the intention to disturb the law and order situation in the state, the official said.
He said the police officials had been asked to intensify intelligence gathering in this connection and take effective action.
The department of telecom on Tuesday had approved applications of telecom companies for conducting 5G trials, according to a PTI report. According to DoT, 5G technology is expected to deliver ten times better download speed than that of 4G and up to three times greater spectrum efficiency.