Gatuam Budh Nagar DM’s X account ‘hack’: Contractual staffer arrested

By the time Singh realised that he had posted his comment from the DM’s official account rather than from his personal account, the post had gone viral on social media

Noida: Two days after the Noida police registered a case based on a complaint by the Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate that his official account on social media website X was hacked to comment on a post by a Congress spokesperson, the police on Sunday arrested a contractual employee for making the post.

The man, identified as Sohan Singh, aged around 30 years, had been tasked by the information department (Gautam Budh Nagar district) on contract to operate the DM’s X account. (HT Photo)

The man, identified as Sohan Singh, aged around 30 years, had been tasked by the information department (Gautam Budh Nagar district) on contract to operate the DM’s X account for the past two-and-a-half months, has confessed to making the post by mistake, said DP Shukla, station house officer of the Sector 20 police station.

On Friday, Singh saw an X post by Congress national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate on his mobile phone, and decided to comment on it. However, in his hurry, he forgot that he was logged into the DM’s X account, and not his own, and commented on the Congress leader’s post from the DM’s account, said police.

Shrinate had posted a video with the caption targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on which Singh reacted with derogatory comments about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

By the time Singh realised that he had posted the comment from the DM’s official account rather than from his personal account, the post had gone viral on social media, said police.

Shrinate then shared a screenshot of the post which had the comment made from the official DM handle, saying, “This is DM Noida; he is responsible for the whole district. His language and thoughts about the country’s opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, must be seen. It is clear that the administrative staff is full of Sanghis - and now they are sitting on constitutional posts and fueling hatred.”

Gautam Budh Nagar DM Manish Kumar Verma said that he rarely uses his account, and the communication officer (of the information department) has the responsibility to handle the DM’s official X account. He then filed a complaint with the Noida police saying that he did not make the comment, and that his account had been hacked. Police registered a case under relevant sections of the IT Act at Sector 20 police station on Friday.

SHO Shukla said that as the access to the DM’s account is limited, their investigation zeroed down on Singh, who confessed to the crime.

A case under relevant sections of the IT Act was registered at Sector 20 police station in Noida on Friday, and the suspect was arrested on Sunday.

Sunil Kumar Kanaujia, additional director, Information Department, Gautam Budh Nagar,told HT, “Sohan Singh was working on contract for the past six years, and around three months ago, he was tasked to handle the GB Nagar DM’s X account.”

“After the incident, Singh confessed that he made a mistake and submitted a written apology also. However, as his act was condemnable, his contract was terminated,” the officer added

Police officers said Singh would be now produced in court.