Misled by Google Maps, Assam cops land in Nagaland; attacked and held captive by locals

While following directions on Google Maps, a team of Assam Police accidentally landed in Nagaland.

Google Maps, an mobile application intended to give directions using GPS, landed a 16-member team of the Assam Police into trouble after the team inadvertently strayed into Nagaland's Mokokchung district during a raid while it was following the directions on the app.

The locals thought of the police team as miscreants and attacked them. They also held a few of them captive overnight.

A senior official of Assam Police told PTI that the incident occurred on Tuesday night when a team of the Jorhat District Police was carrying out a raid to apprehend an accused.

"It was a tea garden area, which was being shown in Assam on Google Maps. However, it was actually inside Nagaland. The team went inside Nagaland in pursuit of the criminal due to confusion and misleading guidance on GPS," he said.

The locals thought the Assam Police team to be some miscreants carrying sophisticated arms and detained them, he said, PTI reported.

"Of the 16 personnel, only three were in uniform and the rest were in civil dress. This also led to confusion among the locals. They also attacked the team and one of our personnel was injured," he added.

Upon receiving the information of the hostile situation in Nagaland, the Jorhat Police immediately contacted Mokokchung Superintendent of Police, who sent a team to the spot to rescue the Assam Police personnel.

"The locals then realised that it was a genuine police team from Assam and released five members, including the injured person. They, however, held the remaining 11 persons as captives overnight. They were released in the morning and reached Jorhat later," the official told PTI.

This is not the first time that Google Maps have landed people into trouble.

Earlier in December, a family from Bihar, travelling to Goa, ended in a thick forest zone in Khanapur taluk in Karnataka's Belagavi district after following Google Maps' directions. The situation forced the family to spend a terrifying night trapped in their car until they were rescued by local police with the help of the villagers, officials had said.

In another incident in November last year, a tragic incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly when three persons lost their lives after their car, misguided by Google Maps, fell off an under-construction bridge and plunged into the Ramganga river.

The deceased relied on Google Maps for navigation and unknowingly, their vehicle approached an incomplete flyover. Unaware of the end, they drove onto the structure and fell into the river.