Fake Instagram profile of IGP Roopa created to cheat people of funds, complaint filed

The incident came to light after a man tweeted to IGP Roopa about the fraudulent donations.

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On Friday morning, IGP Roopa Moudgil was shocked to see a tweet by a user named Suresh Hosamani, who had accused her of collecting donations without providing adequate details.

IPS officer Roopa then realised that a fan page was created in her name, which included photos of her. It also had a post seeking donations for “destitute women”.

“This is not my account. I'm not on Instagram. This is brought to my notice only now. Will complain to Cyber crime police station @CIDKarnataka . Meanwhile request those on @instagram to report this issue,” IGP Roopa tweeted.

This is not my account. I'm not on Instagram. This is brought to my notice only now. Will complain to Cyber crime police station @CIDKarnataka . Meanwhile request those on @instagram to report this issue https://t.co/DBYNDzzTog — D Roopa IPS (@D_Roopa_IPS) December 28, 2018

Speaking to TNM, IGP Roopa said that she does not have an Instagram account at all and that the photos for the fake account were taken from her Facebook profile.

“I don’t have an Instagram account. It came to my notice when someone tweeted to me screenshots of the money that was being collected by someone pretending to be me. The money was being sent to a PayTM account,” IGP Roopa said.

On Saturday, IGP Roopa sent a complaint to the Cyber Crime Police. In her complaint, IGP Roopa has requested the Cyber Crime Police to track down the miscreants and has also requested them to alert Instagram authorities so that the account could be taken down.

‘I don’t know how much money the person has collected but I was shocked when someone tweeted the screenshots to me. There were small amounts of Rs 500 and Rs 20 also being donated. I don’t know how long this has been going on,” she added.

The Cyber Crime Police have registered an FIR under sections 420 (cheating), 419 (cheating by impersonation) of the IPC and sections 66(c) (punishment for identity theft) and 66(d) (cheating by impersonation using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.