BENGALURU: Miscreants impersonated Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath and sent messages on WhatsApp to other officials working in the city corporation on Friday. Upon learning of the crime, the Deputy Chief Information Officer of BBMP IT cell, Prabhakar, filed a complaint with CEN police of the Police Central Division.
At around 9 am on Friday, chief engineer for lakes Vijayakumar Haridas received a message from an unknown number-94280 53334. The sender greeted the official and asked him about his whereabouts at the moment.
When checked, the WhatsApp Display Picture (DP) contained Girinath's face, his name and designation. The BBMP Chief Commissioner has directed all the officials not to respond to such messages and report the matter immediately.
"I received the message in the morning and I was sure there was something fishy. Why will the Chief Commissioner say good morning and ask officials where they are and what they are doing on WhatsApp? Few more officials received such messages and hence, BBMP Information Technology official Prabhakar has filed a complaint with cyber police in this regard," said Haridas.
Responding to the incident, BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath said, "This is the second time such an incident has happened. Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh's name was also earlier misused and two years ago my name was used by some miscreants too. Now again my name and image is being used to circulate messages to officials."