The Town police have started probe into an incident in which three Hindi voice clips were recently circulated among migrant workers by unknown persons with a claim that the Kerala government has ordered the killing of all Hindi-speaking people in the State. Investigation is now under way on the basis of a complaint filed by the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association (KHRA).
The KHRA approached the police as the voice clips, accompanied by disturbing pictures, resulted in many migrant workers leaving the city to their homeland. In the complaint, they claimed that not less than 200 migrant workers left the district after the circulation of the fake message.
Photos too
The voice clips, lasting around two-and-a-half minutes, urged the non-Kerala Hindi-speaking labourers to return to their homeland. To support the claims, photos of migrant workers’ killings in other parts of the country were circulated.
Muhammed Suhail, district president of KHRA, said hotel entrepreneurs faced an unexpected setback with the sudden exodus of migrant labourers. The message had wrongly influenced several persons as some of them connected it with the recent suicide of a migrant hotel labourer in the city, he said.
“We learn that the police are investigating the case very seriously as the voice clips blame the Kerala government,” said Mr. Suhail.
Meanwhile, the Town police said they were yet to buy the argument of hoteliers that more than 200 labourers fled from the city as a result of the WhatsApp message. Though the Railway authorities were contacted to examine the trend of migrant workers’ journey, there was no major change in the pattern, the police said.
Senior police officers confirmed that the source of the message would be probed.
