Meanwhile, police across have intensified patrolling in industrial areas where a bulk of the migrant workers are employed.
Thirunindravur Police, attached to Avadi Police Commissionerate, has registered a case against OpIndia.com, an online news portal, for publishing fake news regarding the attack on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.
OpIndia published a report on 3 March titled ‘Fingers chopped, being hanged: Bihari migrant workers share their ordeal, TN DGP calls reports of attacks fake’.
The article referenced fake news published by the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar that several Hindi-speaking migrant labourers, originally from the Jamui district in Bihar and working in Tamil Nadu, had been attacked and even killed.
The Opindia report was widely shared by pro-BJP handles, without verifying the facts, even though the Tamil Nadu DGP Sylendra Babu clarified that the news was fake.
Suryaprakash, secretary of DMK IT Wing, on Monday, 6 March, lodged a complaint with the Thirunindravur Police citing the article published in OpIndia and sought action against the news portal.
Based on the complaint, the police registered a case under Sections 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups by words, either spoken or written) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief — whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the news portal’s CEO Rahul Rusan and Editor Nupur Sharma.
A statement issued by the Avadi Police confirmed that a case has been registered and the matter is under investigation.
However, OpIndia report was still on its portal at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, police across the state have intensified patrolling in the industrial areas where a bulk of the migrant workers are employed.
Special helplines have also been set up and Hindi-speaking police personnel deployed in the control rooms to assist with any complaints by the mostly North Indian migrant workers.
Police sources told South First, that mobile teams have been set up and the DGP, Sylendra Babu, has instructed the respective station house officers to visit industries and construction sites in their jurisdiction where migrant workers are working and to sensitise them.
Special attention is being paid to districts like Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Erode, Chennai, and Kanchipuram, where exclusive helplines were announced to receive complaints. Patrolling has been intensified in those districts, which host the most migrant labour.
According to police headquarters, there has not been a single complaint so far from the migrant workers regards any attacks on threats.
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