A video clip of BJP MLA Randhir Singh defending cyber criminals in Jamtara and instead blaming the victims for not being smart enough to deal with phishing calls has gone viral on social media, grabbing eyeballs and raising many eyebrows, in as well as outside the political fraternity.
In the video, which is claimed to have been shot on January 15, the Sarath legislator is heard saying that police should not unnecessarily harass the people of his constituency over matters of cyber crime, and instead make the victims of cyber fraud smarter.
“Nobody has ever been able to dupe any resident of my constituency. If illiterate people of our region are so smart that they can dupe educated people of other states then whose fault is it?” the former minister asks while addressing a gathering in the viral video. “Why do the literate people of other states provide their personal details to callers over the phone? If police harass our people without any evidence, then I will have no option but to gherao police stations,” he adds.
Jamtara, which has gained the infamy of being the cyber crime capital of the country, is home to several gangs of “Panchvi Fail” cybercriminals, who have duped several rich and educated people living in the metros, say police. Around 200 Kilometers north of Ranchi, Jamtara is said to be the Indian equivalent of the Romanian town of Ra^mnicu Va^lcea, dubbed Scamville, which is the global capital for cyber criminals. Last year, Netflix released a web series on the cyber criminals of Jamtara and named it ‘Jamtara – Sabka Number Ayega’.
According to police, cyber criminals in Jamtara are most dependent on phishing, a procedure in which cyber frauds disguise as trustworthy representatives of banks and finance companies over phone calls and ask for personal banking details of their target.
The BJP MLA’s remarks come at a time when the governments at the centre as well as in the state are running extensive awareness campaigns against cyber crime through various platforms. Sarath, from where Singh is a two-time MLA, falls in Deoghar district and shares its borders with Jamtara.
In the video, Singh also goes on to jokingly say that there was no harm if money from other states and countries was coming to Jharkhand through cyber fraud. The former minister did not respond to phone calls from The Pioneer on Monday. An SMS and a WhatsApp text, asking for his comments on the viral video has been sent to Singh, and his response is awaited.
However, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo questioned the authenticity of the video and said that demeaning the MLA was not right until the authenticity of the video was established. “The video is not clear, and there is no way to match the audio of the clip with the lip movement of the former minister. In this era of doctored videos and editing techniques, I think the video clip needs to be examined before jumping to conclusions,” he said.