Fake news of Kamptee MLA’s death goes viral

Nagpur: After fake news of the death of former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan went viral on Thursday, the shenanginans of social media hit closer when a similar message for Kamptee MLA Tekchand Sawarkar started doing the rounds on WhatsApp. “I was shocked to hear that there’s a message that I had died,” Sawarkar told TOI. He had immediately issued a video statement confirming that he was hale and hearty.
“One of my MLA friends called up and informed me about such a message doing the rounds in their area. Soon more MLAs started calling up and I realized that now this thing (message) has gone viral. Panic spread among many of my relatives and well wishers, but fortunately we were able to counter that very quickly,” said Sawarkar.
The video message of Sawarkar denying the fake news was forwarded zealously by his supporters to multiple groups. “Within an hour we were able to convince everyone that it was just a rumour,” said Sawarkar. “Somebody has done this with malicious intent and I hope such people are punished by the law,” the BJP MLA added.
Later in the day, a police complaint was filed by Sawarkar regarding this issue. A member of Sawarkar’s team told TOI that they have named a person in their report. “We have named the person from whom we got the message. He too had received it from someone, and police will look into the chain of messages by back tracking to the original source,” said the source in Sawarkar’s team.
Sawarkar says there should be strict laws against such activities. “It’s sad that people are indulging in all this when the entire country is in the grip of Covid-19. Our district is one of the worst hit, so energy must be focussed on helping each other and not creating panic and confusion,” said Sawarkar.