As many as 16 people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of two men in Karbi Anglong district of Assam, while a senior police officer has been given charge to keep a vigil on rumours in social media, the DGP said today.
Among those arrested, included the man who allegedly fanned the rumour on social media that child lifters have entered Assam, Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia told reporters here.
While Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Agarwal is monitoring the investigation, ADGP Harmeet Singh has been given the charge of keeping a strict vigil on rumours on social media, Saikia said.
He appealed to the people not to get swayed by rumours on social media and immediately inform police if they came across any such post.
The police has released some telephone numbers through which the people can contact them. They can also inform the nearest police station, the Superintendent of Police or the police headquarter in Guwahati about, the DGP said.
The cyberspace is very wide requiring more people to monitor it and Chief Secretary T Y Das has given the nod to bring in more people to monitor social media, the DGP said.
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The chief secretary was also present at the press conference.
Asked whether forces from outside the state were spreading rumours in the run up to the publication of the second draft of the National Register of Citizens slated on June 30, the DGP said it was not possible to say anything at this stage, but the investigation covered all angles.
He said security in vulnerable areas of the state has been intensified and special patrolling was being conducted, particularly in the weekly Sunday markets, to prevent any untoward incident.
Two men, returning from a picnic spot, were pulled out of their car and lynched by villagers who suspected them to be childlifters in Assam's Karbi Anglong district, in a gruesome incident of mob fury which police blamed on panic created by social media posts.
Nilotpal Das (29), a sound engineer based in Mumbai, and his friend Abhijeet Nath (30), a businessman, had gone to the picnic spot Kangthilangso on Friday night to capture the sounds of nature and were on their way back when they were stopped by some villagers at Panjuri and thrashed, despite the duo pleading that they were Assamese and not outsiders, police said.
In a video of the incident circulated on social media, the two men can be heard begging for their lives and trying to explain to the livid crowd that they were innocent but to no avail.
After the police reached the spot, the two seriously injured men were rushed to a hospital but they died on the way.
Their bodies were brought to Guwahati and cremated late last night.