Vishakhapatanam: An alleged attempt to kidnap three government school girls in Vizianagaram district created a panic among Merakamudidam villagers under Budarayalavalasa police station limits on Thursday.
This went viral on social media following which the police declared that the kidnap allegations were untrue.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, sub-inspector Ch. Naveen Padal said that a group of 40 people from Nanded came to Vizianagaram district a few weeks ago. They formed groups and were seeking alms in the name of religious activities for Shirdi Sai Baba.
One of the groups was coming to Merakamudidam on Thursday morning in an auto. The 11-member group comprised six men, four children, and a 14-year-old girl.
"On the village outskirts the group stopped their auto, and asked three girls passing by on cycles the address and routes of the village," the SI said.
Suspecting that the group was trying to kidnap them, the students rushed to the village and informed their parents, who in turn alerted the villagers and caught the group before informing the police.
"My team and I rushed to the village and took the group into custody. On interrogation, we found that there was no kidnap attempt. It was completely a misunderstanding between the group and the school children," the SI said.
Meanwhile, the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) conducted a statewide special drive against Illicitly Distilled (ID) liquor on Thursday and registered 449 cases by arresting 253 persons. SEB officials said that, along with police, they raided liquor distillation, transport and sale points.
The SEB officials informed that 495 teams participated in the raids across 736 places in the 13 districts of the state.
Around 5,571 litres of ID liquor was seized, 2,56,010 litres of fermented jaggery wash destroyed and 32 vehicles were seized.
