Woman cop suspended for alleged harassment of cyber-crime victim - Hindustan Times
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Woman cop suspended for alleged harassment of cyber-crime victim

Hindustan Times, Ranchi | By, Ranchi
Dec 18, 2018 03:43 PM IST

The victim of cyber fraud said that Rs 1 lakh was fraudulently taken from his bank account by fraudsters posing as bank officials and he was made to run from one police station to another for two days before his complaint was registered.

A woman constable has been suspended for making a victim of cyber-crime run from one police station to another to lodge an FIR. It took two days for the complaint to be registered — and that was allegedly done only after the discovery that the complainant was the cousin of the private secretary to the Prime Minister. By that time, he had done the rounds of three police stations.

A cyber police station in Jharkhand. According to rules, cyber-crime incidents can be reported at any police station.(HT File)
A cyber police station in Jharkhand. According to rules, cyber-crime incidents can be reported at any police station.(HT File)

Oli Minj (53), a resident of Bandhu Nagar near Doranda, works as an announcer with All India Radio in Ranchi. He said that Rs 1 lakh was fraudulently taken from his account (with the State Bank of India, Tupudana) on Thursday. The fraudsters, posing as bank officials, called Minj several times. “They asked me to forward an SMS to different phone numbers. By the time I realised that these were phishing calls, Rs 1 lakh had been withdrawn from my account,” he said.

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Minj immediately went to Doranda police station, where the woman constable, Savitri Devi, also a munshi at the station, asked him to visit a police station either in Sukhdeo Nagar, where he had received the call, or in Jagannathpur, the area of his residence. Even the next day, his FIR was not registered.

The harassment allegedly ended only after it was revealed that Minj was related to the personal secretary of PM Narendra Modi. Then, the police station in-charge, Ramesh Kumar Singh, visited his residence and registered an FIR.

Upset about the time lost in running from pillar to post, the fraud victim said, “Had the police registered an FIR immediately, the amount could have been recovered by now.” He said that the constable misbehaved with him. Despite the rule that cyber-crime incidents could be reported at any police station, the constable did not accept his complaint, he said.

Call traced to Asansol

Ranchi senior superintendent of police Anish Gupta said that a police team was sent to Asansol in West Bengal after the fraudsters’ call was traced to that city. He said that besides taking action against the constable, an inquiry was being conducted to ascertain whether other officials, including the officers in-charge, were responsible for not registering an FIR. “Action would be taken against the officials found guilty,” he added.

Station in-charge Ramesh Kumar Singh could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

In another case, cyber-criminals siphoned off more than Rs 3.35 lakh from the bank account of Prashant Vajpayee, general manager of Central Coalfields Limited, at Baniyadih in Giridih district. Deputy superintendent of police (cyber cell) Sandip Suman Samdarshi said that the amount was withdrawn from Vajpayee’s account on December 11 and December 14. The matter was being investigated, he said.

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