Salem Expressway: Chennai man held for circulating fake news'

Salem: Even as the Salem district police acted swiftly to arrest a Chennai-based assistant film camera man, P. Selvaraj, for allegedly circulating ‘fake news’ vis-a-vis protests against the Salem-Chennai expressway on social media including ‘What’sApp’, the district SP has appealed to the people on Monday to be alert in not forwarding such “rumours and baseless reports of people’s agitation”.

He also urged them to get in touch with the nearest police station if they continued to receive such wrong information on their mobiles.

The Salem SP (in-charge), Mr Arularasu said that people should cooperate in curbing such ‘fake news’ as it could have undesirable law and order fallouts.

 A ‘fake news’ about the protests against ‘Green Corridor’ doing the rounds on social media, ostensibly originating from Theni district, was acted upon by the Mallur police in Salem district, he said.

The SP said the person who circulated the ‘fake news’ - that there was a police firing and one person was killed- was traced to one Selvaraj in Chennai who was arrested on Sunday night, he said.   Selvaraj told the police that he merely ‘forwarded’ the message sent by one person from Erode and hence further investigations are on, said the SP.

He added, another case has also been registered at Karipatti police station against one anonymous figure by name, ‘Rowthiran’ for inciting people through such ‘fake news’.

Meanwhile, the land survey and fixing of border stones for lands to be acquired for the Salem-Chennai expressway project was almost completed in Salem district today, amid sensational scenes.

In Poolavari area, a farmer Sakthivel in anger uprooted a border stone fixed on his land by the surveyors, even as in several other villages, land owners and farmers opposed to the project picked up heated arguments with the revenue and police officials.   

Sakthivel’s wife swooned and fell to the ground, even as self-immolation bids by few other women there, was also foiled.