Dehradun: Cyber crime cases are increasing continuously across the country. In the blink of an eye, these cyber criminals are not only cheating financially. But, they are also not shying away from tarnishing personal image. Even in a small state like Uttarakhand, the number of cyber crimes is increasing day by day. The surprising thing is that they are targeting everyone from the common man to the top officials.
From the top officials who run the administrative system of the government sitting in the government to the officers sitting in the district, all are on their target. Sometimes by creating a fake social media ID and sometimes by putting the photo of the officer on the WhatsApp number, incidents of demanding money are becoming common every day. Now the Uttarakhand government has shown seriousness in this matter and has decided to deal with it strictly.
Second attempt of fraud in the name of the Principal Secretary: The latest case is related to senior officer and Principal Secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram in the Uttarakhand government. Where the fraudsters created a WhatsApp ID in the name of the senior IAS officer, then put Meenakshi Sundaram’s photo in it. After this, the process of asking for money started. The fraudster also tried to ask for money using his photo at other places. Money has been demanded from many people. This incident of asking for money in his name from different social media platforms is not the first time. Earlier also, money has been demanded in his name in a similar way and in both the cases he has also informed the police.
The method of asking for money is common: A similar incident has also happened with Uttarakhand Disaster Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman. Recently, an ID was created in his name by putting his photo, then friend requests were sent to people. After that, money was also demanded by messaging many people one by one. In this case too, the police have registered a case.
However, no action has been taken so far. Along with this, a complaint has come to light about creating a Facebook ID of Rudrapur Chief Horticulture Officer Harish Tiwari and asking for money from his acquaintances. In this incident, messages were sent in the voice of his accident and to transfer some money. Cyber police has registered a case in this matter as well.
Money was also demanded in the name of senior police officers: Criminals have not left police officers behind in this matter as well. A few years ago, money was demanded by creating fake Facebook IDs in the name of Ashok Kumar, former DGP of Uttarakhand. In this case too, the police took action in different areas but did not get success. After that, criminals adopted many tricks to demand money by creating fake Facebook IDs in the name of Ashish Chauhan, former District Magistrate of Bodo. When this matter also came to light, a case was registered in the cyber police station in this matter as well.
The fraudster demanded money by creating three different IDs in the name of IAS Ashish Chauhan one after the other. Before this incident, Facebook IDs were created in the name of Manjunath TC, former SP of Udham Singh Nagar, and people were first talked to, then after sending requests, money was also demanded. After this incident, IPS Manjunath TC himself had to appeal.
This crime is happening from foreign land: Not only the officers are worried due to the continuous increase in such crimes in Uttarakhand. But, the cyber police is also surprised by such complaints coming daily. If we believe STF SSP Navneet Bhullar, then in such cases, first of all we get the ID of the concerned person closed. So that it cannot be misused further. He says that usually these crimes are happening from foreign land. Therefore, their method and style of asking for money is the same, perhaps this is the reason that in such cases no one is caught quickly, but we take further action by getting that ID closed completely from our side. So that, no one else becomes a victim of fraud.
This work is being done at the government level: After continuous incidents of this kind in Uttarakhand, the government is also serious. Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Anand Vardhan has given instructions to strengthen EOU (Economic Offenses Unit – Nodal Agency for Matters Related to Economic and Cyber Crimes) to curb financial and cyber crimes.
The Chief Secretary directed the concerned officials that there should be better coordination between all the bankers and implementation agencies and departments to curb financial and cyber crimes in today’s digital age. There should be speed in FIR, investigation, chargesheet, compliance etc. related to financial crimes. Big effective institutional efforts should be made to stop this type of financial fraud. Along with this, the Chief Secretary has directed to use EOU (Economic Offence Wing), which is currently working under CBI, to make this agency an independent agency. He said that the presence of bank representatives should also be mandatory in the Cyber Crime Coordination Center. So that, the website, portal of any institution, firm doing financial fraud can be blocked immediately and people can be saved from financial loss immediately.
