While the police are going all out to disprove the rumours being circulated on the WhatsApp and other social media platforms about prowl of notorious kidnappers and thieves sometimes in the guise of mentally ill, people in Vijayawada and nearby districts continue to have apprehensions.
The police are reaching out to the public across the district through awareness campaigns dispelling the rumours but in many villages, people are still gripped by fear.
The control room received 237 complaints in the last four days.
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However, the number of people reporting presence of suspicious persons has gone down in the past four days.
On Monday, 103 calls reporting suspicious persons were received.
The following day 86 calls were received which came down to 30 on Wednesday and 24 on Thursday.
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The police could trace only 15 persons including mentally ill men and women.
Only 84 of the 237 complaints were from the city and rest from the Krishna and neighbouring districts.
“While we attended all the calls, many cases turned out to be innocent homeless and mentally ill persons. Also, most of the calls were vague,” a police official said.
In many cases, people were thrashing the persons and not reporting to us, the police said.