Odisha: Family trapped in viral crime

BHUBANESWAR: With reports of pictures and video clips of people’s private life going viral on the social media increasing day by day, one more complaint was lodged with city police on Monday alleging that his family photos were being used by some websites without their knowledge.

BK Rana, a city-based consulting engineer and a resident of Jagamara, approached Khandagiri police on Monday along with his father and lodged the complaint. According to police, Rana had clicked some photos with his father and sister and uploaded them on Facebook a few days back. Later, his friends informed him that his family photos were being used by some news websites.

The complainant also submitted the links of websites where a news along with his family photos were used. In one of the websites, photos of his father and sister were used along with an image of a staircase and the headline of the news was ‘Daughter pushes father down the stairs to save her lover’.

In another website, a similar news was carried with a headline ‘Daughter pushes father down the stairs to save her boyfriend’ and two photos, including one of Rana’s father and another of him along with his sister, were used in the article. In both the cases, the reports stated that the incident had occurred in Noida.
The news carried in one of the websites read, “Daughter Padma pushes her father Vishnu down the stairs to save her boyfriend.” It further stated that after Padma’s father saw her boyfriend in their house, a fight broke out between the duo. And, in a bid to save her boyfriend, Padma pushed her father from the stairs on the third floor, following which he died.

The police suspect that the malicious websites are running concocted news to promote some online games which offer cash prizes.The complainant told the police that he has already sent the complaint along with the news links to the e-mail IDs of the officers mentioned in the website of the State Crime Branch.
However, Khandagiri police station officers asked Rana to lodge a written complaint with cyber crime police station in Cuttack for detailed investigation into the matter.