‘Cyber crimes, land frauds galore in J&K’

Cyber crimes and land frauds have been on rise in Jammu and Kashmir, according to Inspector General of Police (IGP), Crime, Muneer Ahmed Khan.

“There has been an alarming rise in cyber crimes, land and property frauds. People are being deceived by luring them online. Land and property fraud has also been on rise in the state which is a big concern,” Khan told.

Police is worries about this “new face” of crime.

“Land brokers have resorted to frauds due to two main reasons- one is Jammu and Srinagar cities are left with very less land and whatever is left in the valley and Jammu region, brokers are constantly selling it through fake documents. They even sell one piece of land four to five times to different persons. The other thing is cost of land in the state has increased exponentially,” he added.

Official sources in Law department said due to lack of deterrence and stringent punishment, perpetrators of cyber crimes go scot-free and keep repeating the offence often.

“We make laws and it is the responsibility of police to ensure punishment and impartial investigation into the cases. There should be no political intervention while dealing with crimes. But unfortunately there is lack of deterrence and stringent punishment in our state,” sources said.

Commenting on cyber crimes, the officials said culprits are not punished for sending lewd messages or cheating gullible people of their money.

“Victims continue to suffer for want of proper forum to redress their grievances. These days we can see people easily shame people online in front of whole world by just one click and authorities watch it as mute spectators.”

Police recently busted an inter-state ATM cloning gang and detained two suspects who were in process of obtaining PIN Numbers illegally from the customers at an unguarded ATM by posing as customers and cloning the ATM cards.

Police spokesperson said the gang had been active in many other states like Rajasthan, MP, Maharashtra, UP, Haryana and Delhi “and they use the same technique to collect data related to ATM cards”.

“The arrested members of this gang are most wanted in Delhi and other parts of India and are prize catch,” the spokesperson said.

Police has appealed ATM card users to immediately change PIN numbers/passwords of their ATM cards so that chances of further withdrawals are minimized.