Bengaluru police get over 15,000 SIM cards used by fraudsters to cheat city residents blocked
Bengaluru: The city police have identified and blocked in the last three weeks more than 15,000 SIM cards used by fraudsters to cheat residents of Bengaluru, in a bid to curb cybercrime.
The police action came after a surge in cases of cybercrime registered across its city limits, they said on Saturday.
According to the police, a special drive was started on August 16 with an aim to check incidents of cybercrime in the city. As part of the initiative, the police have managed to identify and get blocked 15,378 SIM cards from August 16 to September 7.
Most of these SIM cards were found to be operational in northern India and were used by fraudsters to cheat residents of Bengaluru through various fraudulent modus operandi.
"Since January this year, there has been a surge in cases related to cybercrimes and we received a lot of complaints where the victims shared contact numbers through which they were approached by fraudsters with various schemes and were ultimately duped by them. So, we identified these numbers, verified it and got them blocked immediately," he said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Command Centre) Ravindra Gadadi said a single SIM card can be used by a fraudster to cheat many innocent people. So even if that single SIM card gets blocked immediately, then he can't reuse the same SIM to target other victims.
This way it helps in reducing the number of victims and also brings down the number of cases.
It's an ongoing drive and as and when we identify such suspicious numbers, we will get such SIM cards blocked, he noted.
The police are also analysing case files of previous years to identify more such SIM cards that were used for carrying out fraudulent activities so that they could get them blocked too if still in use for the same purpose.
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Hospital wall collapse: CM orders suspension of executive engineer; kin of victims get solatium
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday ordered the immediate suspension of an executive engineer for the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital wall collapse that claimed the lives of seven people, during a high-level review meeting at Vidhana Soudha.
A compensation of Rs 5 lakh, as announced by the CM Siddaramaiah, was distributed to the families of seven victims who lost their lives in the tragedy on Wednesday evening, which occurred due to heavy downpour with gusty winds and hailstorm.
The meeting of municipal commissioners of the five corporations, chaired by the chief minister and attended by Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, focused on fixing accountability and examining lapses that led to the tragedy.
"Why was soil dumped in a way that damaged the wall? Why did you not monitor this?" Siddaramaiah asked, pulling up hospital authorities during the meeting.
A statement from the chief minister's office said that the CM ordered the immediate suspension of the executive engineer of the Karnataka Health Systems Development Project (KHSDP).
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He also questioned the hospital authorities, asking why they failed to monitor the dumping of soil that weakened the structure.
The chief minister directed that a notice be issued to the head of the Hospital.
During the meeting, Siddaramaiah said the rains had caused extensive damage in the city, with over 250 trees uprooted.
The Chief Minister instructed officials to take necessary measures before the onset of the monsoon to avoid untoward incidents.
Commissioners of all five municipal zones in Bengaluru have been asked to take precautionary steps, including trimming dry and dangerous tree branches, the CMO said.
Siddaramaiah also directed them to get the silt cleared from stormwater drains to prevent flooding, and that immediate action be taken to remove debris and fallen branches from roads.
Further, he instructed that barricades be placed at underpasses where water stagnates and restricts public movement.
The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao said in a statement that Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad distributed compensation cheques of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased on Thursday.
Seven people, including a six-year-old girl, were killed and seven others injured when the compound wall collapsed amid heavy rain, strong winds and a hailstorm on Wednesday evening.
Police said the victims, comprising three from Bengaluru, two from Kerala on a study tour and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Assam, had taken shelter near the wall when it suddenly gave way, trapping them under the debris.
The chief minister questioned officials over the dumping of soil near the wall despite knowing it could weaken the structure, and directed that a notice be issued to the head of Bowring Hospital.
Siddaramaiah, who had visited the spot soon after the incident along with senior officials, reviewed the situation and ordered a detailed probe into the collapse.
