Kanpur: The city police are all set to take strict action against individuals using slain gangster Vikas Dubey’s name on Facebook pages to sell lethal weapons, property and running job placement agency.
In the past few days, several groups claiming to be fans of slain gangster Vikas Dubey are creating Facebook pages on which they are selling firearms, running job placement agencies and real estate business.
“We are identifying individuals and groups, who are sharing such objectionable posts and selling arms, which is illegal, on social media. The Cyber Cell has been entrusted the task of identifying and locating such people. A surveillance team is working round-the-clock on this. Objectionable posts will not be allowed at any cost and strict action will be initiated against the accused,” said SP Rural Brijesh Srivastava.
Nearly two dozen Facebook pages and groups are active on social media, out of which one page ‘Pandit Vikas Dubey Kanpur Wala Fans Club’ has more than 17,000 active members, said officials.
On the ‘Pandit Vikas Dubey Kanpur Wala Club’ page, an individual who has introduced himself as Sonu has posted an advertisement asking users if anybody requires a weapon to get in touch with him on a WhatsApp number. He also claims that the deal will be done in a very transparent manner. If one wants a firearm in Kanpur, there is provision of hand-to-hand delivery. If someone needs a firearm in another district or state, then one has to make payment in advance. The man has also quoted different rates for delivery outside the state. For delivering weapons in Rajasthan, one has to shell out additional Rs 2,500 and for Gujarat Rs 3,200 in advance. Similarly, there is a separate rate list for delivery in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and others.
IG (range) Mohit Agarwal told reporters, “The task of zeroing-in on the crooks has been assigned to the cyber cell. We will procure a complete call detail record (CDR) of the crook who has posted advertisements on social media, and will also take action against those who contacted him or bought illegal firearms from him.”
“At the same time, instructions have also been given to the cyber cell to identify all the members of the gangster’s fan club who had uploaded advertisements of selling property or providing jobs. They could be fraudsters, so one should not indulge in any kind of monetary dealing with these crooks,” said a senior police official.