Amid poll season, Gurugram police gears up to tackle fake news complaints

Gurugram: The trend of fake news started in the recently held municipal elections in five districts of Haryana where banners were placed against the Chief Minister in Rohtak. In Gururgam, an online campaign was initiated against the Chief Minister on the similar lines.

After the complaint received by BJP's IT cell, the certain members from the opposition parties were arrested.

However, some of them were later released on bail. Complaints of fake news being posted in the social media have seen an upward trend even as it does not figure among the top list of cyber crimes.

The number of complaints pertaining to fake news being circulated on Facebook and Twitter have risen over 40 per cent compared to the previous year. In 2017, over 200 such cases were registered by the cyber crime police while in 2018, there have been more than 330 cases were registered.

While this form of cyber crime is a new phenomenon, most of the criminals get emboldened by the fact that there is still no stricter law that enables the law enforcement officials to penalise them.

One of the people, who was accused of circulating fake news on the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khatatr, was arrested from Jind which is 150 kilometres away from Gurugram.

There is no doubt that the nation is progressing digitally but the criminals are opting this route to carry out their nefarious acts.

"Nowadays, practically every citizen has a smartphone and therefore, it has become easy for everyone with wrong intent to be a part of this crime," said a senior police official from Gurugram police.

"Taking cognisance of this new form of crime our team is also trying to adapt to it. We too are adapting ourselves to deal with cyber crimes. It is however also important for citizens to be careful and responsible in their use of technology," added the official.