Ludhiana, Feb 8: Cyber crime wing of the Punjab police is busy trawling Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets these days, and looking for weapons. People posing with guns, to be precise! And 15 such people are already under the scanner after the cyber wing’s social media cell traced location and asked the police stations concerned to take “appropriate action”.
“We are examining the pose and the caption on such photos on social networking sites. If there is direct or indirect threat to someone, we will act swiftly, said Surendra Lamba, additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP), special branch, Ludhiana. “While those with illegal weapons will be arrested, licences too can be cancelled.” He specifically warned those “posing with weapons of their friends”.
This comes in light of police acting strictly against gangsters and also looking to curb the “gangster culture” as the criminals have managed to catch the imagination of lakhs of social media users. For instance, Vicky Gounder, the state most-wanted gangster who was killed by cops recently, has 4 lakh ‘likes’ on Facebook pages in his name.
Besides, police in the Ludhiana commissionerate are acting against violation of arms licence norms in general too. In December alone, 24 licence were cancelled renewal of 57 was held back after the holders failed to meet norms. Police also issued notices to 680 licence holders after they did not produce the required documents and the record of bullets used. So far, police here have scanned 12,000 arms licences and checked the police record of the owners.
Punjab has the highest number of arm licences and Ludhiana is second after Gurdaspur district, as per 2015 data.
News Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com
