PARADIP: Police arrested four persons including former chairman of Erasama panchayat samiti Manas Sethi and former sarpanch of Janakadeipur Deepak Das for circulating fake stories on coronavirus on social media on Friday.
The accused had sent a message to several people on WhatsApp stating that Narendra Majhi of Ramatara village under Erasama police limits was affected by coronavirus. They attached prescription by a doctor of District Headquarters Hospital on Majhi’s health condition along with the message. When police came across it, they launched an inquiry which ascertained that the prescription was a fake one and the villager was not affected by coronavirus.
Along with Sethi and Das, two others Umesh Rout and Joyti Prakash Sahoo were arrested for circulating the fake message. Similarly, the Paradip Port Trust filed a complaint with police after getting information about a fake Facebook message which stated that an employee of Paradip International Cargo Terminal Pvt Ltd has been affected by coronavirus. The message was received by some employees of the organisation on Thursday. However, during inquiry PPT found the message to be fake and registered a police compliant.On Thursday, Jeypore police had arrested two persons for spreading rumours on coronavirus.