Delhi Police Commissioner falls prey to cyber fraud

New Delhi: The police commissioner, Mr Alok Kumar Verma, is the latest victim of cyber crime in the city. The Delhi police has registered a case against an unknown person who had created a fake Twitter account in the name of the city police commissioner. The person used the account to tweet misleading facts about police investigations and abused other account holders.

A police source, privy to investigation in the case, said Twitter had suspended the fake account after city cops wrote to the social networking site that someone was intentionally using a fake account to harm the reputation of the police commissioner.

The source said that the Delhi police had recently formed a social media cell to keep watch on social networking sites. “The police team while checking Twitter found an account with the name of Alok Verma.

The account holder had been using Alok Verma as the display name. He had also put up a photograph of current Delhi police commissioner Alok Verma, that too in police uniform. His Twitter handle @AlokvermaCPDP also revealed that he was intentionally misleading other account holders,” the source said.

The verified Twitter account of the Delhi police commissioner is @CPDelhi. The social media cell cross-checked with the commissioner’s office about the suspicious account. After the inquiry, the police team came to know that someone was impersonating as police commissioner Alok Verma.

“The content of the tweets and re-tweets made by the accused were of such nature that it was reflecting a bad picture of the entire Delhi police department. His tweets and re-tweets were causing damage and harm to the image and reputation of the police commissioner and to entire police department. The innocent public and some political leaders were being misled by the accused who had created this account,” the source said.

The matter was also brought to the notice of Mr Verma, who was surprised that someone was damaging his image on Twitter, the source added. A special team was formed to look into the case as the matter pertained to the police commissioner.

The team also approached Twitter and finally the fake account was suspended. “Though the fake account has been suspended, the accused is still yet to be identified. We are looking into the matter and hope to arrest him soon,” the source said.

 

The article was first published in The Asian Age.