KOLKATA: Odissi dancer Dona Ganguly, wife of BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly, lodged a police complaint on Wednesday about a fake Facebook page in her name. The fake page, accessed by TOI just before it was taken down, had over 76,000 likes and posts that had little to do with either Dona or the Ganguly family.
This is the second time since 2017 that the cricket icon’s family had to move police against fake social media accounts; the first one was linked to Dona’s daughter Sana Ganguly.
Dona told TOI, “It was brought to my notice by a student. I have a verified Facebook page, where I usually post my dance performances. This fake Facebook page had our family photograph as a profile picture. Initially, we learnt they shared some photographs of my family. We usually ignore these. There are multiple accounts, which keep sharing or re-posting whatever Sourav writes or posts on his social media handles. But in this case, some comments were made that were not right. For example, there was a comment made about a child. People who know us would always understand that I personally, and my family, will never make such comments. But people at large, who may not be aware that it is a fake account, may feel we are endorsing such comments. That is why I chose to report it. Sourav’s office has alerted Lalbazar. They were kind enough to let me know due action is being taken.”
“We have received an email, where it has been alleged that some people have created a fake profile of Mrs Dona Ganguly. We are taking legal action,” said joint commissioner of police (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.
Several photos of Sourav, Dona and Sana were shared on the fake page, the cyber cell confirmed on Wednesday. Police said the IP (internet protocol) address used to create the profile had been identified. The matter has been reported to statutory agencies and legal experts are being consulted. “A student of mine has written on Facebook about this fake account,” Dona said. “This fake Facebook page had garnered more likes than the original page. Like others, we could not ignore this because of the comments and statements.”
In 2017, eight fake FB profiles of Sana were created. Sourav and Dona had told police their daughter, who was 16 then, did not even have a Facebook account.