5 PERSONS ARRESTED ON CHARGE OF CYBER OFFENCE IN MIZORAM Aizawl : January 16, 2015 (Friday) Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana yesterday said the state police has arrested five persons for spreading false information on social media. According to Aizawl SP C Laldina, the accused allegedly posted on social networking site like Whatsapp and Facebook that a woman in the Tuikhuahtlang locality was gangraped on Tuesday evening and the victim died after being brought to the Aizawl Civil Hospital. The ‘news’ sent shock waves in the capital city which was rocked by the massacre of five members of a family on Friday night last. The news quickly escalating to the point local leaders and police were kept on their toes trying to confirm if the incident did take place. Police began investigating what turned out to be false rumors after locals registered an FIR. The kingpin Ruth Chalthansawmi of the city’s Saron Veng locality and four of her accomplices were arrested on Thursday and charged with spreading false information and were booked under Section 66 of the IT Act and Section 203 of the IPC. Police were interrogating to know why they resorted to such act of spreading false information, the minister said. Meanwhile, Home Minister R Lalzirliana urged residents of the state to exercise caution when it came to spreading apparent news items on social media sites and messaging applications, saying unconfirmed news reports often spread like wildfire and are prone to produces unprecedented outcomes. The rapid spread of information about incidents, especially tragic ones, across Mizoram through social media has sometimes led to various law and order problems in the state. The accused, the SP said, has told police she had composed the “breaking news” message as a “joke” she shared in a group of about a dozen friends and that it must have leaked from there although she later posted in the same group it was only meant as a joke. According to IGP Zorammawia, at least 50 cases of misuse of such communication channels – including sending offensive messages and pictures – have resulted in police cases being filed since 2009 with 24 of them in the past year alone.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 05:27:30 +0000
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