Two portals booked for false news on minister, relatives

Rumours were doing rounds that 10 teams of Income Tax personnel will conduct raids on houses and premises of a leading politician and his relatives and friends. At this juncture, the police said that two online news portals (Dailyhunt and oneindiatamil.com) posted news that Income Tax raids were conducted at the houses of the minister. Actually, no such raid had taken place on Thursday.

In a press release, the Coimbatore City Police said that the minister’s brother SP Anbarasan in the complaint to the police had stated that the news stated that I-T raid was conducted on his house and also had his picture with the news. A similar complaint was lodged by Chandrasekar, a contractor for Coimbatore Corporation. They claimed that these false news items were intended to tarnish their names and that of the minister.

They also alleged that unidentified persons have been making threatening calls to the minister’s residence. Based on their complaints cases have been registered. Sources said that case would be registered under appropriate sections of the Information Technology Act.

Police sources said that an inquiry was under way to identify those who published the news and persons responsible for it. After investigations, representatives of the news portals would soon be asked to appear for questioning. Further course of action would be initiated based on the outcome of the inquiry, city police sources added.