Take strict action against online scammers: Chief Secretary

Jammu, Jan 16: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, Thursday chaired the 35th Union Territory Level Coordination Committee (UTLCC) meeting convened by Reserve Bank of India, Jammu branch here.
The meeting was aimed to discuss issues related to unauthorised deposits, fraudulent activities of unregulated entities and sharing of market intelligence among the stakeholders.
Regional Director, RBI, Jammu, Principal Secretary, Home Department, Principal Secretary, Finance, ADGP(CID), Secretary, Revenue , Secretary, Law, Director Industrialise and Commence and Joint Director, Information, Jammu were present in the meeting. Besides, top officials of regulatory bodies in J&K including GM, RBI, Registrar Cooperatives, RoC, Market Intelligence Unit, RBI and representatives from SEBI and ICAI also attended the meeting.
The Chief Secretary took notice of the instances of defraud committed against the people of the UT. He stressed on taking strict action against these online scammers under the relevant provisions of BUDS Act.
Dulloo reiterated that commission of crime in itself is cognizable offence so the law enforcement agencies have primary responsibility to take impromptu action against such entities to safeguard people from falling prey to their traps. He enjoined upon the regulatory bodies to notify the rules so as to facilitate the law enforcement agencies in taking action. He also advised them including the RBI, SEBI and others to generate awareness among the people and circulate this knowledge through social media, WhatsApp and bulk messaging to people through banks operating in J&K.
The Chief Secretary enjoined upon the RBI authorities to empower the police officers in carrying out effective investigations in the cases of digital arrest or online scams. He asked them to train some master trainers who would go in districts to train about 5000 investigation officers in police department.
He maintained that this is the area of concern as the digital marketing and online transactions are becoming popular by each day making people vulnerable to defrauding on the hands of these criminals. He stressed on reaching out to students in colleges and villagers in blocks/panchayats for holding such outreach campaigns.
He also reviewed the progress achieved in disposal of pending fraud cases and called for concrete preventive action that would act as deterrent for others. He called upon the concerned to ensure effective implementation of BUDS Act and the relevant sections of newly adopted criminal laws to eradicate this menace from J&K.
Dulloo also underscored the need for taking strong action against fraudulent apps/websites, activities of Nidhi and other unregistered/unaddressed entities duping the people of J&K.
Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Chandrashekhar Azad, discussed various steps that can be taken to tackle the rise of such fraudulent activities in cyber space and called for collaborative approach among all stakeholders. He also assured about accelerating the pace of literacy campaigns for creating necessary awareness in public besides building capacity of local law enforcement agencies to deal with such crimes in a more effective manner.