A textile shop worker was arrested in Coimbatore on Sunday for allegedly forwarding SMSes on the Assam violence to many persons in the city, the police said.
The Cyber Crime Cell police, acting on complaints traced the origin to a colony in Ukkadam area in the city and arrested him. On being questioned, the man reportedly told police he did not know about the origin of the SMS and had forwarded it to 100 persons after receiving it. He has since been remanded to custody.
Meanwhile,c ity police commissioner A K Vishwanathan held a meeting with 250 people of the North East, including students, labourers and businessmen and assured them of safety at their workplace and homes.
He said a helpline has been opened to enable them contact police in case of any emergency. Rumors through e-mail and SMS on attacks on northeasterners residing in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had triggered an exodus of people from these two states in the past four days, the flow of which however abated on Sunday.