The Bengaluru police have registered a case against unknown miscreants for sharing fake information about Pre-University exams in Karnataka, while pretending to be the official Twitter account of a state minister.
A tweet dated July 13, which was shared from the fake account ‘@nimmasurrsh’, which was pretending to be Education minister S Suresh Kumar’s Twitter handle, claimed that the government was giving grace marks to students in the English exam.
The fake account carried the same picture as the minister’s official account, and had a similar display name as well. However, the official account -- @nimmasuresh, is a verified profile on Twitter, symbolised by a blue tick next to the handle’s name. The tweet from the fake account went viral, and screenshots of the tweet were shared on several groups on social media as well.
The fake tweet read, “A lot of 2nd PUC students have been calling me since afternoon enquiring about the bugs and grace marks in English paper conducted on 18th June. A notice was already sent to all the evaluators to award a total of 26 grace marks in English paper, only if the student has attempted (sic).”
On July, 14, the Minister had posted a screenshot of the viral tweet on his account, with the word ‘FAKE’ plastered across it.
— S.Suresh Kumar, Minister - Govt of Karnataka (@nimmasuresh) July 14, 2020
A complaint had also been filed with the police to ‘take action as is feasible under the law’ as it had caused ‘embarrassment’ to the Education Department.
The Bengaluru North CEN (Cyber Crime, Economic Offences and Narcotics) police have now registered a case under Sections 420 (Cheating) and 505 (Public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), besides relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
CEN police stations were set up by the Bengaluru police to handle new-age crimes, which needed specialised investigators.