Ranchi: Amid a sharp rise in cyber exploitation cases across Jharkhand and West Bengal, the Cyber Investigation Division (CID) has been urged to step up monitoring and bring culprits to justice. The alarming trend involves blackmail, hacking, and misuse of private images, leaving victims distressed and authorities under pressure to curb the growing menace.
The most recent case comes from Malda, West Bengal, where two individuals, Arkaparao Dutta and Somnath Sharma, were accused of blackmailing a minor girl. The duo reportedly obtained obscene photographs through threats and further harassed the victim.
According to the Jharkhand DGP Anurag Gupta, the state government has given the responsibility to the CID to stop such cases. According to the DGP, if any wrong post is uploaded on social media and the CID feels it is incorrect, then a notice will be immediately issued to that social site by the CID.
Even after issuing the notice, if that content is not removed from the social site, then an FIR will be registered against it, the top police official said.
The DGP said that there is a provision in the IT Act that no action will be taken against intermediate people. "For example, if a person uploads obscene photos on Facebook, then Facebook will not be responsible for this matter, but the person uploading the photo will be responsible," he added.
The top police official further said that to stop obscene content, it is very important that its information reaches the police. "For this, an official email ID is being issued by the CID, in which the victim will complain with all the evidence and the cyber team will take immediate action in the matter and remove the obscene content from the social site and whoever is accused in the case will also be arrested," he added.
The DGP also said that there is a provision in the new IT Act that it is very important for all social media sites operating from foreign countries to have an office in India.
On October 10, cybercriminals breached the official Facebook and Instagram accounts of Jharkhand government’s Jhargov TV and uploaded obscene videos and images. Following the breach, an FIR was registered at Gonda Police Station here, prompting an ongoing investigation.
On September 10, Giridih Cyber Police arrested a youth who lured a girl into a “love trap” using a fake Facebook ID. The accused sexually exploited the girl while threatening to release her private videos and images online.
Earlier in January this year, cybercriminals allegedly extorted Rs two lakh from a girl in Ranchi’s Chutia area by threatening to make an obscene video viral. Similarly, in November 2023, a girl from Ranchi’s Sukhdev Nagar area faced public humiliation after a friend circulated her photograph on social media, falsely labelling her as a sex worker. The swift intervention of authorities led to the accused's arrest.
