Police have started a probe against false information of a BJP worker’s gang rape in Birbhum’s Nanoor after the purported incident was mentioned by several party leaders, including MP Soumitra Khan and MLA Agnimitra Paul, in social media and widely circulated through the Twitter handle of Bengal BJP on Tuesday.

Khan, the president of the Yuva Morcha, posted a picture of a woman without her face in his Twitter handle and claimed the BJP karyakarta had been gang raped by Trinamul goons at Nanoor.

“BJP karyakarta who has been gang-raped by TMC goons at Nanoor, Birbhum. We are also getting distressing reports of rape and molestation from Pakurhansh, Nanoor,” the tweet that tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah read. The Bengal BJP official twitter handle also shared the tweet. The same post was shared by Paul on social media platforms.

After the post went viral in social media and attracted many comments, Birbhum police chief Nagendra Nath Tripathi said a probe had started to find whether the incident had happened.

“We immediately started an investigation and spoke to Tarakeshwar Saha, the BJP candidate from Nanoor, and many others in the area to know whether any such reports were there. Finally, we came to know that it was fake news and done with an intention to spread violence and unrest in the area.”

BJP district president Dhruba Saha, however, said: “A few party workers and media cell (reads IT cell) members told us about the incident. Now, there is no law and order problem here. So, the woman was refuting what happened to her. Thousands of homes have been ransacked and women attacked.”

The SP also said no such incident of rape or gang rape had happened anywhere in the district. “We have asked the cybercrime department to look into it and find out where the news had generated. We will start a case of cybercrime against those who circulated it.”

Police sources said primarily, a group of BJP workers had started claiming that such an incident had happened with a polling agent of the BJP in Nanoor’s Pakurhansh village. The police had traced her and inquired whether any such incident had happened

“The woman did not confirm any such incident,” said a senior police officer.

On Tuesday evening, Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal held a press conference with the woman in question. “It was wrong news. A few of the Trinamul workers had threatened me and I went to another village out of fear. But what has been claimed did not happen with me. I have lodged a complaint with the police to take action against those who have circulated the news,” the woman said in the company of Mondal.

He said the BJP was trying to play a dirty game and the party’s IT cell was trying to promote communal tension in the district.

Former MP Swapan Dasgupta, who unsuccessfully contested from Hooghly’s Tarakeshwar, had also tweeted that thousands of Hindu families in Nanoor were trying to escape “marauding mobs”. Dasgupta’s claim was termed as fake by the police.