Man arrested for spreading rumours in Jammu

A 40-year-old man was arrested on Monday for allegedly spreading rumours that created panic among people here, a senior police officer said.

Yashbir Singh alias "Badshah" alias "Don", a resident of Khour, was arrested on the basis of investigation into the widespread rumours in the city on Sunday which led to "panic buying and heavy rush outside fuel stations", Senior Superintendent of Police of Jammu Tejinder Singh told reporters here.

He said the investigation into the rumours revealed that it had started from the rural area of Jammu and accordingly, an FIR was registered at Akhnoor police station on the outskirts of the city on the basis of investigation.

After a thorough analysis and investigation, the police arrested Singh, a resident of Khour village, who is a history-sheeter and drug addict.

The officer said the investigation in the case is going on and action will be taken against all those who actively participated in spreading the rumour.

"The arrested person is being questioned about his motive behind spreading the rumour," he said, requesting people not to pay heed to any rumour and confirm the same with the police station or police post concerned before passing the information to someone else.

He asked the people to behave responsibly and avoid spreading any information or news which is likely to crate panic in the society or disturb public order.

The SSP said the situation in the district remained peaceful with no untoward incident reported from anywhere during the day.

Low-speed Internet services in Jammu region, which were made operational on Saturday, were snapped again on Sunday after it was found that rumours were being circulated.

Landline and mobile phone services and Internet were suspended in the early hours of August 5 before the Centre announced its move to abrogate provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and divide the state into two Union Territories.