RANCHI: Ranchi Police on Tuesday registered an FIR at the Cyber Police Station in connection with an attempt to commit fraud by creating a fake Facebook account of President Droupadi Murmu. The matter was brought to the notice of Jharkhand Police following which; it conducted an investigation and subsequently registered an FIR, launching a probe into the matter.
According to Ranchi SSP Chandan Kumar Sinha, an FIR has been registered at the Cyber Police Station regarding the case. The URL of the fake ID has been obtained from the concerned individual, based on which, a thorough investigation has been initiated, he said.
Notably, a resident of Hazaribagh, Mantu Soni, who alerted both the Jharkhand Police and Delhi Police, posted on his X handle that he had received a message from the account, which displayed the President’s photo. The message read, “Jai Hind, how are you? I use Facebook very rarely; please send me your WhatsApp number.”
When Mantu sent his number to the alleged cybercriminal, he received a message on his Facebook Messenger stating, “We have saved your number. We have sent the verification code to your WhatsApp; please send us the code quickly.” Mantu quickly realized that the President would not send such a message. Mantu shared the digital evidence with Rashtrapati Bhavan and other agencies, including Jharkhand Police, on X.
“When I was asked to share the six digit OTP sent on my messenger, I shared a wrong OTP. But, I was asked to share the OTP sent again on my messenger, but I did not reply and informed Jharkhand Police, Ranchi Police and CID about the suspected fake account through social media platform X,” said Mantu Soni. Later, Mantu was asked by Ranchi police to share the URL of the fake ID, which he did immediately, he added.
Mantu provided all the details to the Ranchi police, enabling Ranchi police to register a case against the unidentified cyber-criminal. The technical cell and the cybercrime branch team are investigating the matter.