Surat: Viral social media messages that could potentially trigger public unrest is a menace that Surat police have been grappling with since 2015. Finding the source of messages was a tough job for the cops. But not any more.In order to penetrate into the groups of agitators such as Patidar quota stir leaders, police have also started using fake identities. “Cops have become members in various groups, especially run by young leaders of various movements. They have created fake identities and fake profile pages on some social media groups to win trust of the leaders,” revealed a senior police official.“The trick has worked and we have started getting information on time, and this has helped us prevent disturbances,” the official added.Recently, a youth from Vadodara shared a provocative message that could have led to rioting in Surat city. With the help of the cops with fake IDs, police traced the college student within hours. They found that he had no intention of causing any trouble. Hence, they called up his parents and counselled him. The youth was let off with a warning.Fighting the message menace assumes significance for police with Patidar quota leaders widely using the social media to circulate messages within seconds, especially through WhatsApp. Also, the strike against GST in textile market and now the unrest among textile embroidery labourers, mobile chat messages have been the only thing on which police have had no actual control.Police had almost no knowledge of individuals leading the Patidar agitation or the individuals leading other freshly launched movements.In order to glean information, police developed friendship with some young members of the agitating groups and adopted various ways to get close to them through some known person or offering safe passage in some criminal case.“To receive information about a criminal is comparatively easy through other criminals, but in agitations all are united for a cause and they think that they are not violating any law. Hence to convince any of them to pass on information is a difficult task,” explains another official.

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