Mounesh Vishwakarma

Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (EP)

Bantwal, Jan 30: Vittal police on Thursday, January 30, arrested four people including a minor over allegations of spreading fake news on social media and attempting to fuel communal violence.

The arrested are Kalanja resident Siddik (27), Manchi Kukkaje resident Mohammed K (19), Puttur Tingaladi resident Hanif (25) and a 16-year-old minor.

The arrested four had reportedly spreaded fake news through different phone numbers to evade identification to different persons in the vicinity in order to incite communal violence. A case in this connection was registered at Vittal police station.

The police who investigated the case arrested the accused from different places and questioned them. It is said that they confessed of committing the crime. While three of them were produced in the court, the minor was produced in Juvenile Justice Board.

When SI Vinod Reddy went to arrest one of the accused, people present at the place objected to the arrest. The accused was later arrested after holding peaceful discussions.

Police team including Vittal probationary PSI Vinod, Prasanna Kumar, Vinayak, Pratap, Manjunath, Lokesh, Madhu Y, Vishwanath conducted the operation under the leadership of police circle inspector T D Nagaraj under directions from police SI Dr Laxmi Prasad and DySP Valentine D’Souza.