Bizman with PhD creates fake Bengaluru police FB page, held

A businessman with a PhD and several master’s degrees has been arrested for creating a Facebook page called ‘Bengaluru City Police’, where members often uploaded offensive posts.

Malleswaram resident Pankaj Kumar Bachhawat, 40, was arrested by the CCB’s cybercrime wing, which acted on a complaint filed by its own assistant sub-inspector, Bhojaraju V, in December 2019. It took the police around eight months to identify and track down Bachawat.

‘Bengaluru City Police’ is also the name of the official of the city cops, said Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).

Bachhawat has been a part of the community policing initiative for 20 years ago and was issued an identity card by the police. He told the police that his intention behind creating the page last year was to help the people. In the ‘About’ section, he’s posted information about the Bengaluru police and claimed that he’s a “policeman”. Bachawat didn’t upload a single post.

But cops argue that the mere creation of a Facebook page imitating the official account makes him liable for prosecution. What has made things for him is that many of the 21,000 members of the page posted “hateful” posts, said an officer who’s part of the investigation.

The officer further said that Bachhawat requested the police to delete the page and let him off. But a court has remanded him in judicial custody and police are yet to decide on the next course of action, he added.

Kuldeep Kumar Jain, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), made it clear that nobody can create a social media page using the department’s name, however good their intentions may be. While Bachhawat didn’t post anything, the creation of the page itself constitutes an offence, he said. “We are investigating his business and why he created the page,” the DCP added.