Friday, Nov 27 2020 | Time 22:26 Hrs(IST)
image
  • Rajnath discusses defence ties with Vietnamese counterpart
  • Pradhan urges Pokhriyal to accord central university status to Utkal university
  • Opposition Congress comes out in support of Meghalaya power employees
  • Decency of debate and decorum of House must be maintained: Nitish
  • Punjab CM welcomes Centre's decision to let agitating farmers enter Delhi
  • Odisha govt suspends IFS officer Abhaykant soon after his arrest by vigilance
  • Light weight BIS approved helmets mandatory for two-wheeler riders
  • Congress accuses Meghalaya govt of shutting probe into CM-owned cyber firm
  • Rahul attacks PM over economy and farmers movement
  • Suvendu Adhikari resigns as Minister from Mamata Govt; Trinamool MLA Mihir Goswami quits party and joins BJP
  • UP directs to complete Kumbh Mela works at Vrindavan on time
  • Action plan would be announced to fulfill poll promises of NDA: Nitish
  • CISF detects foreign currency worth 10 lakh at Delhi airport
  • Javadekar launches India Climate Change Knowledge Portal
  • Pokhriyal releases compilation of School Education Dept initiatives during Covid
States » EastPosted at: Nov 27 2020 9:43PM


Congress accuses Meghalaya govt of shutting probe into CM-owned cyber firm

Shillong, Nov 27 (UNI) Meghalaya’s opposition Congress party on Friday accused the National People’s Party (NPP)-led government of scuttling investigations into cyber firm owned by Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and his family, involved in an international racket of duping people.
Leader of Opposition in the Meghalaya Assembly, Mukul Sangma raised this issue and said that investigation officers probing of the SS Netcom cases have been transferred to scuttle the investigation.
“When I was Chief Minister, a case was registered in respect of “one illegality” which was going on, that whole global network which was operating across the globe India and unfortunately including Meghalaya from the premises of SS Netcom,” Mukul told reporters.
“Now, who is the owner of this SS Netcom? The board members are Conrad K Sangma, James K. Sangma (Power Minister) and their other family members,” he said.
The former Chief Minister said that he did not the interfere with the case which was registered while he was leading the government, saying that, “we believe in our judiciary and in our administration of justice. Any process of law must not be interfered upon in order to ensure that law is allowed to take its own course.”
“Now after the election, there has been a change of government but a change of government or no change of government, the process of law must continue as they should but what has happened is that I am afraid it is not happening as there is an attempt to derail this whole process of investigation in as far as this case is concerned,” Mukul said.
Quoting a letter written by then (2019) East Khasi Hills district Superintendent of Police to the DIG Eastern range, Sangma said two officers who were investigating into the SS Netcom case registered with Laitumkhrah police station on August 28, 2017, were transferred.
“I have a copy of this letter written by the then SP of East Khasi Hills, Shillong dated February 1, last year which says: The case was registered with Laitumkhrah police station on August 28, 2017, which is before the election for allegedly running a fake call centre in the premises of SS Netcom,” the veteran former Chief Minister contended.
Giving the background of this case, Mukul said what has happened is that SS Netcom has recruited some of the job seekers for IT-enabled services from Shillong and from Meghalaya and North East.
“These recruited job seekers were then trained in Ahmedabad by one fake company called IFA (Irfan, Faizal and Amit) and interestingly Faizal Khan is the fake name of Mr Sunny Mukherjee. When people intend to engage in criminal activities people take fake names,” he alleged.
“Now this IFA was rented out premises by SS Netcom. Before you rent out your premises to anybody wouldn’t you try to verify? Are they so novice and at the same not only renting out but they also trained these youth who were recruited by the same organization and they were brought to Shillong and same trained people were again asked to train some more boys and girls and that is how it came to be known,” he said.
“The whole issue revolves around training these youth to engage in criminal activities
which is the most dangerous thing. I am afraid if our youth are engaged to be trained in these international networks who are engaging in these kinds of criminal activities, that means you are only training your youth to be criminals. There are much deeper things which need to be unearthed,” Mukul maintained, even as he expressed surprise as to why the government is not convening the state security committee meeting despite raising the issue in the assembly also.
“Police officers are not vested with the responsibility of daily law and order related challenges, they are also responsible for investigation and charge-sheeting of cases and the perpetrators of crimes,” the former Chief Minister said.
“Another thing is that during that raid in the month of August, there has been preliminary interrogation, seizing of various materials, which include various gadgets including various related communication, correspondence like various incriminating papers which were part of the script designed to be provided to the trainees and related to IRS (Internal Revenue Services of United States of America),” he said.
“Now what is the thing that was alleged to be happening is that the bulk SMSes to the
targeted citizens of America particularly the non-resident Indians and they are reminded of their discrepancies in respect of their tax return and relevant penal actions which can be proceeded against them as per the law and then they were asked to call a number of people who are trained to receive the call and impersonate as IRS official,” he elaborated.
The people were trained to be capable of impersonating IRS officials, Mukul alleged.
“Now you are talking about this level of criminal activities that were designed to be committed by these youth, who some of them run away and that is how we got the tip and that is how the whole process and resultant arrest happened,” he said.
“This case while being investigated, these officers concerned were being transferred. I came to know recently that is why I am telling it now as they are tampering the whole process of law because police officers are part and parcel of the administration of justice, they cannot be taken in isolation as officers who are only responsible for the purpose of maintaining law and order daily issues,” he said.
“Whether the issue relating to complete process of investigation and charge-sheeting of cases related to crimes against women and children and these kinds of high profile cases, now this particular case relates to a case that has happened in the premises of SS Netcom of whose owner, you all know it includes Conrad K Sangma, James K Sangma and their family members and they have tampered upon the whole process of investigation and they have tried to force the police to submit incomplete charge-sheet in the court without completing the process of investigation without going through proper investigation to verify what are those available data, the information in the seized laptops and seized gadgets and another transcript who was the mastermind,” the former CM narrated.
“Therefore, it is a dangerous case not only of its international ramification but also because it involves the training of our youth to become criminals and engage in criminal activities,” he cautioned.
“I want the government to immediately call the meeting of the state security commission and give an answer for all this transfer and posting of the police to derail the whole process of investigation and also to destroy evidence. It is very dangerous as if any evidence is destroyed, they will be held responsible and they will be required to proceed again under the relevant law for the destruction of evidence,” he demanded.
“Whoever is involved in the destruction of evidence. Since this case relates to a case which has got international ramification and it goes beyond the inter-state border of Meghalaya, it cannot be a subject dealt only by the state police, it has to go beyond. India should not be used as a hub for this kind of criminal activities,” he asserted.
UNI RRK RN
Tags: #Congress accuses Meghalaya govt of shutting probe into CM-owned cyber firm
More News

Pradhan urges Pokhriyal to accord central university status to Utkal university

27 Nov 2020 | 10:20 PM

Bhubaneswar, Nov 27 (UNI) Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan today requested the Union Education ministry to grant central university status to Utkal University.

see more..

Opposition Congress comes out in support of Meghalaya power employees

27 Nov 2020 | 10:09 PM

Shillong, Nov 27 (UNI) Former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Friday came out in support of agitating employees of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) saying that this had to be taken seriously because the employees of MeECL represent the “whole human resources which take care of this very important organization”.

see more..

Decency of debate and decorum of House must be maintained: Nitish

27 Nov 2020 | 10:02 PM

Patna, Nov 27 (UNI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said decorum of the House and decency of the debate must be maintained at any cost, referring to a personal attack on him by the leader of the opposition Tejasvi Prasad Yadav.

see more..

Odisha govt suspends IFS officer Abhaykant soon after his arrest by vigilance

27 Nov 2020 | 9:55 PM

Bhubaneswar, Nov 27 (UNI) The sleuths of Vigilance department today arrested Abhay Kant Pathak, an IFS officer after detection of disproportionate assists to the tune of over Rs nine crore during searches conducted at different places in the country during the last two days.

see more..

Congress accuses Meghalaya govt of shutting probe into CM-owned cyber firm

27 Nov 2020 | 9:43 PM

Shillong, Nov 27 (UNI) Meghalaya’s opposition Congress party on Friday accused the National People’s Party (NPP)-led government of scuttling investigations into cyber firm owned by Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and his family, involved in an international racket of duping people.

see more..
image