Cyber cell nabs ex-minister’s aide for fake FB IDs

The cyber cell of Hoshiarpur police on Saturday evening arrested Rajinder Parmar, office in-charge of former minister Sunder Sham Arora, for allegedly operating fake Facebook IDs and posting objectionable comments and false allegations against MLA Brahm Shankar Jimpa and his family.

The action came after a complaint was filed by Dheeraj Sharma, nephew of former cabinet minister and current MLA Jimpa. The complaint, lodged against unidentified persons, sought action against the operators of the Facebook IDs involved in circulating defamatory posts and comments.

According to the information received, the cyber cell procured technical details of the suspicious accounts from Facebook. Based on the information received and further technical surveillance, the team reportedly traced the activity to Parmar. He was taken into custody and his mobile phone — used to run the fake IDs — was confiscated.

Dheeraj Sharma told this correspondent that two complaints had been filed — one a year ago and another recently — regarding the Facebook IDs — “Raja Thakur” and “Rab Kolo Darr Sajana”. The former displayed locations such as Brampton (Ontario, Canada) and sometimes Hoshiarpur, while the latter listed Kapurthala as its location.

“I was at Ludhiana when I received information over the phone that the accused has been rounded up and the device used to operate these IDs has been seized,” said Dheeraj. He further claimed that Parmar had “taken the name of a big gun on whose directions he was doing all this.”

Arora said, “It is sheer political vendetta. Parmar and Jimpa had been political rivals and they had been contesting MC election against each other. So, he has been framed falsely for political vedetta and justice will be surely delivered by the court.” Meanwhile, the accused has been sent by court to two-day police custody to help in probe.