Aurangabad: After a breather and some cases of mob-lynching, the rumours about a gang of child lifters moving to the city have started making the rounds on social media in different parts of the state, including Aurangabad city.The messages were noticed in the city on Saturday, following which queries about the same were raised with the city police authorities. The message, along with three youths, all of them in their early 20s, is appealing to the citizens to keep an eye out for these youths and also share the message with all their possible contacts.When contacted, the Aurangabad city police chief has clarified that there is no such gang on the loose in the city. He warned of stern action against those found to be spreading rumours.“If people find suspicious elements moving around in their area, they should immediately inform the police on 100 or the police station that is nearest to them, instead of forwarding fake messages and rumours on social media, which can result in violent incidents taking place,” said Commissioner of Police Chiranjeev Prasad.“We will initiate stern action including registration of offences against those people that are found to be spreading such baseless rumours without cross-checking the veracity of the content,” said Prasad.Highly placed sources in the city police confirmed that they are planning to sketch out a detailed plan for dealing with the menace of rumours spreading on social media during the general as well as assembly elections that are scheduled to take place in the next few months.Last year, Nagpur, Dhule, Nashik, Aurangabad rural, Aurangabad city, Jalna, Osmanabad and Latur districts witnessed incidents of people getting attacked by mobs and in some cases even being lynched by people who suspect them to be thieves or child-lifters.This adverse reaction of the public has been the result of rumours circulating across social media claiming that there is a gang of child-lifters on the loose. In each of the incidents, the police have found that the messages were minutely edited to give them a more native touch.The incidents have forced police authorities, including the eight superintendents of police as well as the Aurangabad city police chief, to run an awareness campaign in the region by preparing video messages with an appeal to people not to fall prey to such rumours.“Considering the huge amount of data that gets circulated daily on the social networking sites, the police’s awareness videos might have ended up in the trash long back,” said a superintendent of police, while stressing on the need for preparing a list of awareness videos ahead of the general elections scheduled to take place later this year.

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