For the second time, a fake WhatsApp forward message claiming that the cities of Mumbai and Pune will be under 10-day military lockdown starting “Saturday”, as per orders of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, has gone viral.
Despite being junked by the Indian Army, Pune Police and Mumbai Police, the message has caused much panic among people as it urged them to hoard supplies for the coming days when they would not be allowed to venture outside even to procure essentials.
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The widely circulated fake message reads: “Entire Mumbai and Pune will be under Military lockdown for 10 days starting from Saturday. So please stock everything – groceries, vegetables. CM Uddhav Thackeray will be handing over control of the cities to the Army.”
It further wrongly claims that in those 10 days, only milk and medicine will be sold as it is going to be a “total shutdown”, which may be “announced anytime soon”.
Once again junking this message, the Mumbai Police tweeted on May 26 that all essential supplies will be available, and movement will also be permitted as per existing lockdown guidelines.
The last time the Mumbai Police had to tweet a similar clarification was on May 7.
Notably, these messages are being circulated at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders like Kirit Somaiya have been pushing the Centre to deploy Army in Mumbai to control the worsening COVID-19 situation.
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