The UP Police has acted quickly on the fake news that a woman had drowned her five children in the Ganga because she was unable to feed them during the lockdown.
Yesterday, several prominent news outlets, including Outlook, Indiatimes and Business Insider India had reported that a woman in Uttar Pradesh had drowned her five children after being unable to find food for them during the lockdown. The news had immediately gone viral, and had been shared by several prominent critics of the government including Kavitha Krishnan and Prashant Bhushan.
But as it later turned out, the news was fake. The woman had said that she had drowned her children in the river following a fight with her husband. It was also reported that the woman did not appear to be mentally sound. Bhadohi Police also visited her home and found that it had sufficient supplies of food, which meant that lack of food couldn’t have been the reason why the children were drowned.
The Bhadohi Police has now said that it has initiated legal action against some outlets which had published the news. In a press note, Bhadohi Police has said that it is taking action against IANS, whose initial story had been carried by several outlets, Business Insider India, a reporter from Dainik Janvani named Salim Akhtar Siddiqi and one Hansraj Meena under Articles 51, 53 of the Disaster Management Act 2005, and Sections 188 and 505 (1) (B) of the Indian Penal Code.
