Mumbai: Traffic smart pole screens offensive message; FIR lodged

MUMBAI: A Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official has lodged a police complaint after an unknown individual fraudulently obtained access to the digital messaging system on a traffic smart pole at Goregaon in Mumbai and screened an offensive message over it.
The traffic police alerted the BMC about it, following which the electric supply to the smart pole was immediately switched off.
The traffic smart pole was installed in June 2021 as part of the beautification of the junction outside Oberoi mall, Goregaon East.
A contract for maintaining the pole was given to a private firm, Negative Carbon Enterprises. There are two messaging boards attached to the pole for screening public service messages.
One of the boards mentions the speed limit on the stretch (30 kmph) while the other screens a message about protection from Covid-19. Neither the BMC nor the contractor, Negative Carbon Enterprises, had made any changes to these messages, police said.
On December 22, senior inspector of Dindoshi traffic division, Mukund Yadav, reached out to the BMC office.
He informed them that the message about the speed limit had disappeared from the smart pole. Instead, an offensive message directed at motorists was screened. BMC officials immediately reached the location and halted the electric supply to the board.
In his statement to the police, junior engineer (BMC) Shubham Khairnar said that they made inquiries with staffers of Negative Carbon Enterprises. But the firm said it had no idea how the offensive message popped up on the traffic smart pole.
"An unknown individual fraudulently obtained access to the LED screens and intentionally replaced the public service message with an offensive one," Khairnar said in his statement.
Based on Khairnar's complaint, Dindoshi police lodged an FIR under provisions of IPC and the Information Technology Act.