A fake account of former Assam Chief Minister and current Union minister for ports, shipping and waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on social media platform Instagram has been flagged for asking money from people.
As per reports, the account named ‘OfficeofSarbananda Sonowal’ has been going around asking for money from people through direct messages on Instagram.
This was flagged by a Twitter user named Homen Saikia who posted screenshots of the message sent to him by the fake account.
It can be seen in the screenshots that the fake account asked for Rs 6,500 to be transferred urgently. The account also mentioned that it will return the amount in two hours.
Following the incident, Homen Saikia sharing the screenshots on Twitter wrote, “An Instagram account naming OfficeofSarbananda Sonowal is doing this. @assampolice take action. @sarbanandsonwal @gpsinghips.”
Meanwhile, Assam director general of police (DGP) Gyanendra Pratap Singh replied on Twitter, asking the crime investigation department (CID) of the Assam Police to look into the matter.
In a similar incident in February this year, a fake Facebook account in the name of Guwahati commissioner of police Diganta Barah had popped up.
Miscreants had created the fake account in the name of the then newly appointed commissioner of police in Guwahati, Diganta Barah had informed.
Taking to social media platform Facebook, Barah, who took charge as the new Commissioner of Guwahati Police in December last year, shared a screenshot of the fake account.
That came after another high-level official in Assam Police had a fake Facebook profile in his name which was demanding money after befriending people on the platform.
Diganta Barah, in a Facebook post shared a screenshot of the fake profile with the same name. He asked people not to fall prey for the account and ignore any requests that came from it.
