A 16-year-old boy in Rajasthan was held for allegedly creating a fake Facebook profile of Chengalpattu district collector.
Notably, district collector AR Rahul Nath on January 18 had announced on Facebook that someone had created a fake account in his name and was asking for money from the public. He asked people not to accept any friend request from the profile concerned.
🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️
He further lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police of Chengalpattu. A special police team, thereafter, traced the minor to Bharatpur district in Rajasthan.
Speaking to Indianexpress.com, the collector said these kinds of incidents can happen to anyone and people should come forward and lodge complaints.
“A friend of mine informed me about this fake profile. The guy had requested money from him, suspecting the account my friend took a screenshot of the message and sent it to me. I lodged a complaint with the police the same day. I thank the police, they did a very good job and found the accused from another state within a short period,” he said.
The police booked the minor under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66D of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008. On March 6, the minor was produced before the Chengalpattu district juvenile justice board, which sent him to an observation home.
Chengalpattu SP Aravindhan appealed to the public not to send money through online payment systems if they come across any message from their relatives or friends on social media.