Cops vs gangsters online from Jan 1

‘MUST COUNTER MISINFORMATION’ Department preparing content for three months to counter propaganda; documentaries on lives of families, police work have been prepared

Chandigarh With gangsters and radicals using the social media, especially Facebook, to influence the youth of the state, the Punjab Police will also enter the virtual world from January 1.

Investigation into cases of recent targeted killings have revealed that pro-Khalistani forces had radicalised the key accused — all young men — using the social media.

The department had hired a firm to drive and design its social media presence and strategy three months ago. Now, the top brass and the company are finalising the material that will be uploaded across all segments of the social media as a counter strategy against radicals and gangsters.

The police have formed a team of senior officials to monitor content and also collect feedback from the virtual world.

The material prepared includes documentaries based on lives of families whose wards have entered the world of crime.

The department has also made a few documentaries on its own achievements. These will be uploaded in phased manner.

The aim is to counter misinformation.

“One cannot control or block the activities of anti-social elements on social media. The only way to counter misinformation is to spread true information. Till now, there is nobody to counter fundamentalists or gangsters,” said a senior officer, associated with the task.

“We want people and the youth, in particular, to get correct and proper information,” the officer said.

He went on to add, “When the state was hit by incidents of sacrilege of holy books, the department felt that the challenge of dealing with misinformation on the social media was huge. Even though there had been only two incidents, the social media was projecting it as 20. In today’s world, you cannot control everything through the print and the electronic media,” said the officer.

‘GOUNDER AIDE HELD FROM DELHI HANDLED EXTORTION MONEY’

A day after the police brought Inderjit Singh Sandhu, an alleged aide of gangster Vicky Gounder, from Delhi on production warrants, investigators said he used to handle the extortion amount gathered by the gang.

“Besides handling social media for Gounder, and handling the extortion amount, Sandhu was funding the gang from abroad. Several transactions have been tracked from Jordan and Dubai to Punjab and vice versa,” said an official.

He is alleged to have provided logistical support and money for the Nabha jailbreak last year, when Gounder and five others escaped. Police have recovered two fake passports out of five he used.SSP S Boopathi said, “We are aiming to get more information from him on the Nabha jailbreak and other crimes.”