Two students held under Goondas Act for spreading fake news

Erode: The Goondas Act was slapped against two

college

students at Gobichettipalayam on Monday for spreading fake

news

about Covid-19 on social media.

Police, who arrested the youths, identified them as S Boobalan, 20, and N Karthikeyan, 20, of

Thookanaickenpalayam

village in the district. While Boobalan was second year BSc computer science student at a Coimbatore college, Karthikeyan was an engineering student at Sathyamangalam.

Erode SP Sakthi Ganesan said police conducted an inquiry after a video of a news feed stating that 24 people were infected with Covid-19 at Thookanaickenpalayam village was circulating on WhatsApp. It also asked people of the village not to step out their houses.

“We found the video was created by the duo. They downloaded the logo of a private news channel and used it as a template to make the video,” a police officer said. The duo also confessed to the crime, the officer added.

The Bangalapudur police arrested them on Monday. District collector Kathiravan slapped the Goondas Act against them based on a recommendation from the SP, who also warned of severe action against people spreading fake news.