Kolkata, Feb
14. Mob violence was reported from different areas of the North 24 Parganas
district West Bengal following the rumours regarding miscreants roaming
around shared with graphic images on social media, recently,
police said on Wednesday.

The Diamond
Harbour district police have set up a control room to create awareness,
to curb the rumours tantamounting to ‘fake news’ reporting and preventing the
violence.

“Since
last 10 days, certain images like slit throat were shared on WhatsApp
along with the rumours of miscreants associated with kidney theft roaming
around. Mograhat, Diamond Harbour and Falta are worst affected,” the
officer in charge told IANS.

With the
efforts of the police, the local bodies and administrative officials, the
situation was “now a little better,” he said.

“The
investigation is on and one man who circulated the message has been traced. He
is being interrogated, but arrest of actual culprits will take time. We just
feared a communal violence breaking out due to the rumours,” he said.

On Saturday
Suman Das, a hawker from Odisha, was killed by a mob in Mograhat as people took
him to be a child kidnapper. Twelve people have been arrested in this
connection.

The
awareness programmes are being carried out in the district. Police also rescued
certain victims targeted by the people on grounds of suspicion.