Cops to look at money angle in IT Cell accounts

Mumbai's cyber police booked three owners of social media accounts at the complaint of a Khar resident, who claimed that the accounts belong to the IT cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and were defaming Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Mumbai police. The police were in the process of filing FIRs against six more people operating such accounts.

Complainant Renuka Rohidas Vichare, 29, approached the cyber crime police on Thursday afternoon and submitted a list of 10 social media handles, which regularly post content against the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai police.

Harshad Prajapati owns a Twitter handle called @Harshad_BJP;  Ashish Bhilware Khatik runs a Twitter handle called @Khatik_saab

"I had given a list of 10 social media handlers to the cyber cell. FIRs against two Twitter handles @Harshad_BJP and @Khatik_saab and one YouTuber Om Sethi, whose Twitter handle is @ABirlani, have been registered. The process to register a case against six more social media account owners is underway," Vichare said.

"This is the handiwork of BJP's IT cell to defame Maharashtra's chief minister, whom we see as a guardian of the state. A morphed picture of CM Thackeray was put in a YouTube video. The video was posted on Twitter too. The content of the videos is highly defamatory and in bad taste. The culprits must be arrested soon to teach them a lesson," said Vichare, who runs a hotel in Khar.

Dharmendra Mishra, head, Sena's legal cell

Sources in the cyber police confirmed that the cases have been registered against Ashish Bhilware Khatik, whose Twitter handle @khatik_saab was created in May 2020, Harshad Prajapati whose Twitter handle @Harshad_BJP was created in August 2017 and YouTuber Om Sethi's account was created on January 21, 2014. His videos have had over 1.41 lakh views till date. "The YouTuber also runs a Twitter handle called @ABirlani, which was created in February 2020," said the police source.

According to the Twitter bio of Prajapati, he is the 'INCHARGE-ITSM (MEHSANA ASSEMBELY) District Executive Menber Of ITSM @BJP4Mehsana'. The account is being operated from Mehsana, Gujarat, police said, adding, "We have checked the profile of Khatik on Twitter and he is said to be operating from a place called Bina-Etawa. We will crosscheck it with the IP address and trace these accused soon."

'Why is BJP quiet?'

The head of Shiv Sena's legal cell, advocate Dharmendra Mishra, said, "Legal action has been taken against BJP IT cell members for posting abusive and derogatory remarks against people holding constitutional posts. I am surprised to see that BJP leaders are still quiet and supporting such illegal acts and nuisance of their members."

"This is despite the fact that their members have faced legal consequences for committing the same acts. Their members are desperately trying to defame the present government with ulterior motives in their minds. Further, some of their members are also threatening us on social media platforms. But we will not stop and continue to proceed legally against them," said advocate Mishra.

The other six social media handles against whom FIR was being registered late on Thursday are @INDIAN34258 on Twitter and YouTubers ULTI KHOPDI, Varun Kapur, Ved Tiwari, SSR Warriors and Zennis Das.

Recently, the police learnt that a Bihar-based YouTuber accused of spreading misinformation earned Rs 15 lakh in four months by posting fake content.

Also Read: 322 held, 7,000 abusive posts against politicos deleted: Maharashtra Cyber Cell

Police believe that these YouTubers and the Twitter handlers too might have made financial gains by posting malicious content.

"This will be revealed only after we arrest them. But chances of them having made handsome amounts of money are high as the Bihar-based YouTuber Rashid Siddiqui, a civil engineer, earned a lot of money through fake news about Sushant Singh Rajput," a police officer said.

Ten
No. of account holders whose names complainant submitted to the police on Thursday

Keep scrolling to read more news

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!