Fake News Spreader Beware: CA Arrested For Circulating Morphed Document Announcing Lockdown

HYDERABAD: A Chartered Accountant was arrested on Monday in a joint operation by the CCS police and the Task Force on charges of morphing a government order (GO) imposing a lockdown and deceiving people by posting it on social media.

On April 1, the accused, Sreepathi Sanjeev Kumar (48), a Madhapur resident who worked at Karvy and Co in Banjara Hills, downloaded and fabricated the government document on his laptop and phone, which he then circulated in WhatsApp groups.

Sanjeev was born in the Andhra Pradesh town of Nellore, in the Dargah Mitta. His possessions included a Dell laptop and an Apple iPhone, all of which were used in the commission of crimes.

Sanjeev had downloaded and forged an old GO about the Covid-19 lockdown released by the State government, according to Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar.

“He forged the G.O by changing the dates of the lockdown and wrote this year’s dates and further through WhatsApp circulated it,” Anjani Kumar said.

He also shared a PDF version of the fake G.O. with his WhatsApp party of 40 people. The members of the group then informed their families, causing fear in the general public.

According to the commissioner, he cheated the public by spreading a bogus G.O. The Hyderabad Cyber Crime police have opened a case, which is currently being investigated. A cyber crimes team headed by Joint Commissioner of Police (Detective Department) Avinash Mohanty investigated over 1,800 cell phones during the investigation, he said, before zeroing in on the real culprit. The Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force (West Zone) squad arrested the suspect.

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