In the past few years, we’ve heard a lot about “Digital India” and seen a push towards utilising the internet’s potential to its fullest. While that should’ve been a progressive move, it has led to an over-abundance of fake accounts, trolls and online robbers. However, all’s not dark and sad as a class-X boy took a similar path to get justice for himself.
According to Times of India, a teenager from Gorakhpur created a Twitter handle by the name of UP’s Director General of Police, Om Prakash Singh, to solve a pending case of his.
Reportedly, the boy’s brother was duped of ₹ 45,000 by a man named Sadiq Ansari from Maharajganj. Ansari had taken the money with the promise of employment, but he never returned with the job or the cash.
That’s when the boy and his family lodged a complaint against Ansari at the Gulharia Bazaar police station. However, the police never acted on the case and he went onto create a fake account of the UP DGP, in an attempt to nab Ansari and retrieve the money.
The DGP’s office soon noticed this and reported the matter to the Hazratganj police. After a case was filed, the cyber cell tracked the boy down and brought him into custody. Cyber cell inspector Arun Kumar Singh said,
“When questioned, he said that he got the idea from another boy of his village and then created the Twitter handle using his friend’s phone.”
The boy further added that he had gone to the police and the district cops on multiple occasions but didn’t get any help from them. So, when a friend of his suggested him to instruct the SSP of Gorakhpur to expedite the case via a fake account of the UP DGP, he did so without hesitation.
Luckily, that’s exactly what happened as SSP Gorakhpur instructed the local police to look into the case by referring to the fake DGP’s tweet. While Ansari was nabbed and made to return the money, the fake account holders were left off with a slap on the wrist.
“We took a reformative approach and let off both the school-going kids, as any action would have affected their future.”
By the time the DGP’s office was informed about this directive from SSP Gorakhpur, Ansari had already returned ₹ 30,000, with the promise of returning the rest very soon. However, once they did get to know about it, they took immediate action to secure the UP DGP’s Twitter account and delete the fake one.
There’s certainly a lot to learn from this entire ordeal. Firstly, it shows the police’s reluctance to help the general public. Additionally, it shows that no effort was taken to cross-check the Twitter Id. But, what we should take away from it is that, no matter what the means were, at the end justice prevailed and the criminal was punished appropriately.