As many as 16 people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of two men in Karbi Anglong district of Assam, while a senior police officer has been given charge to keep a vigil on rumours in social media, the DGP said on Sunday.

Among those arrested, included the man who allegedly fanned the rumour on social media that child lifters have entered Assam, said Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia.

While Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Agarwal is monitoring the investigation, ADGP Harmeet Singh has been given the charge of keeping a strict vigil on rumours on social media, Saikia said.

He appealed to the people not to get swayed by rumours on social media and immediately inform police if they came across any such post.

Asked whether forces from outside the state were spreading rumours in the run up to the publication of the second draft of the National Register of Citizens slated on June 30, the DGP said it was not possible to say anything at this stage, but the investigation covered all angles.

He said security in vulnerable areas of the state has been intensified and special patrolling was being conducted, particularly in the weekly Sunday markets, to prevent any untoward incident.

CM Sonowal holds review meet

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal later in the day held a high-level meeting to take stock of the law and order situation in the state.

Sonowal asked Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia to ensure police vigil on all activities and to put an end to canards likely to vitiate public order and peace.

He said that no leniency should be shown to the culprits.

Chief Secretary T.Y. Das and Saikia told the media after the meeting that the state government had taken the lynchings very seriously.

Lyched by mob

On Friday, two men from Guwahati were lynched by unidentified people in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district on the suspicion that they were child lifters.

The incident took place in the backdrop of a rumour on social media that a group of ‘sopadhara’ (meaning child abductor or lifter in Assamese) were on the prowl in Nagaland’s Dimapur town and some of its adjoining areas in the district. Karbi Anglong shares a border with Nagaland on the east.

Nilotpal Das (29), a sound engineer based in Mumbai and his friend Abhijeet Nath (30), a businessman, had gone to the picnic spot Kangthilangso in Karbi Anglong late Friday night to capture the sounds of nature, police said.

On their way back from the picnic spot, the duo was stopped by some villagers at Panjuri. They were pulled out of the car and mercilessly beaten to death  suspicion of being child lifters.

After the police reached the spot, the two seriously injured men were rushed to a hospital but they died on the way.

Their bodies were brought to Guwahati and cremated late last night.