Police warn rumour mongers; say social media posts on child abductions fake

Coimbatore District Police Superintendent V. Badrinarayanan said on Thursday that social media posts, which said that men from north Indian States were roaming to abduct children, were fake and warned action against rumour mongers.

The district police chief issued the clarification after some posts circulated widely on social media said that men from north India attempted to abduct children within the limits of the Periyanaickenpalayam police station.

According to the district police, a man hailing from a north Indian State approached a woman residing near Periyanaickenpalayam on March 8 and asked if she wanted to buy a mixer grinder. The woman told him in Tamil that she did not want the product.

It is said that the man, who was selling mixer grinders with another man in an autorickshaw, did not understand the woman’s reply and entered the steps to her residence.

The woman suspected that the man was attempting to abduct her child. She chased him, attempting to beat him with a stick. As neighbours also attempted to assault him, he escaped from the place in the autorickshaw. The residents spotted another man who accompanied the mixer grinder seller and handed him over to the Periyanaickenpalayam police.

Investigations by the police revealed that the two men had hired an autorickshaw from Mettupalayam for housetohouse sale of mixer grinders and they did not have intention to commit a crime. They were left off later.

The police said some videos of an incident that took place in another place were circulating on social media, misrepresenting them as having taken place here. Public should not trust the contents of such videos, the SP said.