J-K high court orders FIR against Facebook India, others in online fraud case

Jammu, February 20

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed that an FIR be registered against Facebook India, its country head and six others on the complaint of a local resident that he was duped of over Rs 20,000 by an online fraudster through an advertisement placed on the popular social networking website last year.

In an order dated February 17, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur said the in-charge, cyber cell of police would register an FIR and the same would be investigated by the concerned branch dealing with cyber offences.

The order was passed on a petition filed by Vivek Sagar through advocate Deepak Sharma.

The high court set aside the September 2, 2020 order by the special railway magistrate, Jammu directing SSP Crime Branch to look into the allegations and register an FIR only if a cognizable offence is found to have been committed by the accused persons.

Last year, Sagar had moved the court of railway magistrate, Jammu to seek its intervention for registration of an FIR against eight people/entities including Facebook India online service private limited, its country head Ajit Mohan, Bajaj Finance Limited and its managing director Rajiv Jain, and Quadrant Televentures Limited.

Sagar said he filed the petition after the cyber police failed to take note of his complaint that he was duped of Rs 20,700 through an advertisement on Facebook by being trapped by an online fraudster on the pretext of granting him a loan of Rs 1.50 lakh. PTI

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