MEERUT: Apart from enforcing the ongoing lockdown in the state, UP Police is keeping busy with another equally important task at hand — busting fake news reports and taking action against those trying to put a communal spin on the pandemic.Since a religious convention held by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi was found to be the source of a large cluster of Covid-19 patients, UP police has flagged off and taken down several fake reports and forwards about alleged misbehaviour of quarantined Jamaat members. For instance, last week media reports claimed that quarantined Jamaatis in Saharanpur were asking for non-vegetarian food and even defecated in the open.Soon after, Saharanpur Police used its official Twitter account to dismiss the reports. Saharanpur SSP Dinesh Kumar said after the news was published, local police probed the matter. “There was no open defecation. Someone had littered after eating their meals and that was it.”Another tweet claiming people in a sector in Noida were quarantined after they came in contact with Jamaat members was debunked by Noida DCP Sankalp Sharma from his Twitter handle.Police in other districts have also used their official Twitter handles to flag off false reports. A tweet by a TV channel that Jamaat members found positive in Firozabad district pelted stones at an ambulance and medical team was swiftly dismissed by police.Majority of the fake news posts related to the Jamaat cropped up after an incident was reported from Ghaziabad on April 2, over a fortnight after the congregation was held in Delhi’s Nizamuddin between March 13 and 15. Reports emerged that six quarantined Tablighi Jamaat members had misbehaved with nurses at the facility in Ghaziabad. A letter from Ghaziabad's chief medical superintendent (CMS) to district senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kalanidhi Naithani which narrated the incident was widely circulated on social media. A case was filed and the matter is now under investigation.But since then, UP Police had to deal with a barrage of fake news reports. Since the lockdown came into effect on March 25, police have taken action against 66 fake news posts, of which 21 were on Facebook, 18 on Twitter, 16 on TikTok and 11 on WhatsApp. “Several of these mentioned Tablighi Jamaat while some accused members of the minority community for deliberately trying to spread the virus,” said a police officer.Jyoti Narayan, IG (Law and order) told TOI that in some cases an FIR has been registered. “At other times, we have issued rebuttals or told the user to take the post down. We also approach the social media platform directly.” The IG added that social media cells in each district are monitoring online activity.Once a suspicious video or post surfaces online, the police station concerned is contacted and action is taken after consultation with senior police officers in the district. Prashant Kumar, additional director general of police (Meerrut Zone) said posts, tweets and pages with inflammatory content are being either deleted, blocked or taken down.Then there are videos that purportedly show members of a minority community spitting on food items or sneezing to “spread the virus”, but many were found to be fake as well by independent fact-checking websites.Such false incidents are being reported offline as well. In Meerut, police recently arrested a local shopkeeper, Arun Kumar, his brother and his friend for allegedly trying to frame a member of a minority community by claiming that he had spit on them and bit them. Police later found it a matter of personal enmity.Meerut SSP Ajay Sahni said, “Some miscreants tried to settle old scores by spreading rumours against a community. All three accused have been arrested.”Another man in Auraiya district who claimed on social media that Jamaat members were hiding in the area was arrested after the post was found to be fake.