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Child lifting scare grips Bareilly region
A senior police official of Bareilly said the ADG directed the districts’ social media cells to keep round the clock vigil and contradict posts about child lifting rumours. He said earlier the rumours were spread after two kids of a railway employee were found missing but later it was discovered his estranged wife had taken them along.
Lucknow Rumours about child lifting gangs being operational in the region for the past few days have thrown a scare into people of nine districts of Bareilly zone, particularly those living in rural areas. This has also led to some innocent people being beaten up on suspicion of being child lifters.
Bareilly zone additional director general (ADG) of police, Raj Kumar on Thursday issued directives to deal with such rumours and advisories to all districts police chiefs in the zone, which includes Bareilly, Rampur, Badaun, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bijnor and Amroha.
The ADG has asked police officials to stay alert and deploy police personnel at certain points like spots near schools, playschools and parks where children play, as well as societies and village markets from where these rumours often emerged. Earlier on Thursday, a mentally unstable woman was beaten by a group of villagers in Tanda Saadat Ganj village under Nawabganj police station after she was suspected of being a child lifter. The police later rescued her and admitted her to a hospital.
A senior police official of Bareilly said the ADG directed the districts’ social media cells to keep round the clock vigil and contradict posts about child lifting rumours. He said earlier the rumours were spread after two kids of a railway employee were found missing but later it was discovered the railway employee’s estranged wife had taken them along and it was clearly visible in the CCTV footage of the incident.
He said the rumours about child lifters spread when two school going boys suspected two men walking behind them and they later exaggerated it by giving statements that the two men were wearing black clothes and had a weapon in their hands. He said the ADG had asked to maintain police visibility at such places where there was possibility of people suspecting strangers as child lifters and to tell people to inform the police if they found anything suspicious rather than beat or attack anyone.
He said the ADG had asked all district police chiefs to take stern action against those unnecessarily causing scare manually or virtually through social media platforms.
