Nine youths held for bid to trigger communal clash

Nine youths have been arrested on charges of spreading derogatory messages about a particular community through WhatsApp and other social media portals, police said Tuesday. The youths, belonging to another community, had convened a meeting at a village near Porayar in the district on April 21 to discuss a clash between two communities in Ariyalur district during the general elections, they said.

"We received complaints that they (the youths) had recorded derogatory messages related to the other community and spread them through the social media," Superintendent of Police C Vijayakumar told reporters here. With the help of cybercrime wing, the Porayar police conducted an inquiry, he said.

The nine, all belonging to various villages around Porayar, were arrested on charges of attempting to trigger communal clashes and have been remanded to judicial custody. The police officer warned that action under the Goondas Act would be taken against those who spread hate messages on social media and trigger communal clashes.