Prominent politicians in Uttarakhand on target of hackers　　

Dehradun: The top state politicians appear to be on the target of

hackers

and people using fake social media accounts. The issue came to the fore when minister Rekha Arya made a complaint with DIG Dehradun Arun Mohan Joshi alleging that someone had made a fake account with her identity and was circulating objectionable messages through them. This is not the sole example and the accounts of some top politicians have been hacked or duplicate accounts were created under their name to spread malicious information.

Former CM Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri urban development minister Madan Kaushik, an OSD of CM Trivendra Singh Rawat and a number of other BJP leaders too have been on target of hackers in the past. The person who created the Facebook account in the minister’s name made a Facebook call to her relative and a teacher and showed them pornographic content. The issue was brought to the knowledge of Arya, who made a police complaint on Thursday. This was not for the first time when a social media account of the minister has been targeted. On January 10, this year, the Instagram account of the minister was hacked and she had reported the matter to police. Terming it a serious issue, Arya said, "Police needs to act promptly in this matter. This is not for the first time I have been targeted on social media. I have brought the matter to police knowledge and waiting for the findings." She added that police is yet to inform her about the developments in her Instagram account hacking case.

Narendra Pant, circle officer and in-charge of cyber cell, told TOI, "We received a complaint from minister’s office that someone made a fake profile on her name and made calls to her contacts through messenger. As the profile was deleted within no time, we have sought details from Facebook to ascertain the identity of the culprit."

Earlier, in June 2019, the Facebook Account of Dhirendra Singh Panwar, the OSD for CM Rawat, was hacked. Simultaneously, the FB account of many other BJP leaders including Sumit Pandey were Rajesh Chaudhary hacked and objectionable and obscene contents were circulated through these accounts.

In October 2019, the social media accounts of minister Madan Kaushik were hacked. His Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts were hacked between October 28 and 30, last year.

Similarly, in September 2017, the Twitter account of former CM Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri was hacked and a series of "discontented" tweets were posted his Twitter handle. His daughter Ritu Khanduri, who is BJP legislator from Yamkeshwar constituency filed a police complaint in the matter.


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