Social media account of MLC’s PA hacked, derogatory messages posted against BJP leaders

Mumbai: The personal assistant (PA) of Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Rajhans Singh has filed a complaint that his social media account was hacked and a derogatory post was shared from his handle.

The case has been registered by Dinesh Dahiwalkar, 39, a resident of Kurar in Malad East against unknown persons under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (Punishment for defamation) and under section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (computer-related offences).

Dahiwalkar had posted on a social media platform congratulating all BJP leaders inducted into the state cabinet and also congratulating Ashish Shelar for taking over as the Mumbai BJP president after MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha became the cabinet minister. The programme of handing over the charge to Shelar had taken place at Dadar.

According to him, his post on Shelar was edited and a derogatory post was shared on his wall.

“I had posted photos when Shelar took over as the Mumbai BJP chief along with a caption. The said caption was edited by unknown accused by hacking my personal social media account. After I noticed it, I immediately approached the police to register a case,” said Dahiwalkar, who said the unknown person had later deleted the post. He had taken screenshots of the hacked post by then.

The unknown accused as per the complaint of Dahiwalkar had posted defamatory content against cabinet minister Lodha, Member of Parliament Gopal Shetty, former minister Prakash Mehta, MLA Parag Awlani, BJP leader Sanjay Upadhyay and MLC Rajhans Singh.

“We have registered an offence late in the night on Sunday and are in the process of writing to the social media platform as well trying to identify the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to trace the accused,” said Satish Gadhve, senior police inspector of Kurar police station.