CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Police on Tuesday arrested a migrant worker from Jharkhand for allegedly making and sharing a fake video which claimed that locals thrashed migrant workers.
According to Tamil Nadu Police, Manoj Yadav and his friends are natives of Jharkhand and were living in Maraimalai Nagar area. Police investigation revealed that Yadav made the video to gain popularity and to create unrest among the migrant workers. He has been sent to judicial custody.
“One Manoj Yadav of Jharkhand, and his friends, who are migrant workers residing at Maraimalai Nagar area, created a video as if they are beaten up by Tamil Nadu people, and facing a lot of problems in their workplace and requested the governments of Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand to help them to return back to their native place”, tweeted the Tamil Nadu Police.
“Tambaram city police investigated this and found out, this video was created by Manoj Yadav for gaining popularity and to create unrest among the migrant workers. Manoj Yadav was arrested and remanded to judicial custody by Tambaram city police”, added Tamil Nadu Police.
Meanwhile, stepping up the investigation into the rumours of the alleged ‘attack’ on the Bihar migrant labourers in Tamil Nadu, the police of both states on Monday swung into action with the Bihar police issuing the preservation notice to social media platforms while the Tamil Nadu police are conducting reachout programmes to the labourers to allay their fears.
The Bihar police has asked platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Gmail to save the links of the posts by the miscreants in connection with the rumours of the alleged ‘attack’, to help in the probe in the future.
Earlier on Monday, Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) C Sylendra Babu said that the situation is peaceful and the workers have resumed their work. Speaking to ANI, the top cop urged the media to act responsibly while also asking the people not to spread any such messages on social media which are “offensive”.
“The situation now is peaceful and the workers have resumed their work. A few of them have left for the Holi celebrations. They had already booked their tickets and therefore they are gone, otherwise, we are able to convince them through the employers. The police officers have reached out to the migrant workers and also convinced them that there is no such incident of attack on Bihari workers or workers from any other state here. Whatever they have seen in the media that the migrant labourers are attacked, they are all fake videos”, the police officer said.
He said that the migrant labourers are now convinced, as a result of the reach out by the police. “Most of them have not even taken place in Tamil Nadu. They were now convinced. In the places where the north Indian workers were employed, we have intensified the police patrol. Hindi-knowing police officers are in constant touch with them”, he said.
The DGP informed that special helplines were set up in districts including Erode, Tirupur, Coimbatore and Chennai to encourage people to come forward to give a complaint “if at all there is any”. “There has been not even one complaint from them,” he said.
Mentioning the team from Bihar which visited the state to gather information about the alleged ‘attacks’, the police officer said that they have visited almost all places in the state where the migrant labourers are employed.
“They have got the first-hand information that every offensive information that has been published from March 1 onwards is devoid of truth. They are completely fake videos. The district administration and the police are in touch with the employers and sometimes the workers”, he said. (ANI)