Cracking the whip, the Prakasam police arrested five more persons from different parts of the State on Monday for allegedly carrying out a ‘'false propaganda’ on the social media in connection with the Singarayakonda Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy 'arch incident'.
The arrests came close on the heels of the police nabbing eight persons, including six scribes on the charge of ‘spreading falsehood’ on the social media and through electronic media, ‘hurting’ the sentiments of devotees based on rumours spread by a local person that the idols of Narasimha Swamy and the mother goddess in the welcome arch were vandalised by unidentified persons on January 5.
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“'Law will take its own course,” said Prakasam Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal while giving the details of the two cases registered against the arrested persons. “A detailed probe is on. More arrests will follow,” he said, adding that 33 persons were identified for misusing the social media using the latest technology tools.
The arrested persons were booked under IPC Sections 120 (B), 153 (A), 295 (A), 504 read with 34 IPC and under Section 16 of Cable Network Act. The cases related to posting of ‘conspiratorial posts’ on the social media and broadcasting ‘fallacious’ news on television channels regarding the above-said incident with an intention to stir up the sentiments of public and devotees even after the authorities made it clear that the temple gateway had suffered damage due to lack of maintenance due to COVID-19 induced lockdown. Out of 33 identified persons, 24 misused the Facebook, five others twitter and four others YouTube, the SP said.
The arrested were T. Anil Kumar (36) from Ongole, M. Srinivasa Rao from Sattenapalli in Guntur district, C. Naresh Kumar Reddy(27) from Vennapusapalli in Anantapur district, B. Devendra Kumar (38) from Visakhapatnam and B. Nagammikarun (23) from Kadapa.
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