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Journalism of Courage
On Tuesday, the helpline number of the Mumbai traffic police received a message from a person claiming to be the brother of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, asking actor Salman Khan to either pay Rs 5 crore or apologise at a temple to stay alive. The police identified the threat as a hoax. Last week, the same helpline number had received another threat – this one to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The Mumbai police traffic helpline number was set up to help people with updates on the traffic situation in the city and accept complaints. Now, with four threat messages being sent to this number in just a month, the helpline has become a major headache for the Mumbai police. Khan has received the most threats, especially after the firing outside his residence, followed by Zeeshan Siddique, son of former Mumbai MLA Baba Siddique who was gunned down recently.
Interestingly, the Mumbai police control room has two numbers, 100 (the more popular choice) and 112. However, the threats are being sent to the traffic helpline number.
A senior police officer said that the reason for this could be that while the main police helpline number is not on WhatsApp, the traffic control room number is. “Generally, people believe that while calling and giving a threat may land them in trouble, if they merely send a WhatsApp message from a number or a connection not registered in their name, they will not be caught. This is incorrect. In almost all cases, FIRs are registered at the local Worli police station and the person is identified and faces legal action,” a senior IPS officer from Mumbai said.
The officer further added that an internet search for the Mumbai police WhatsApp number will throw up the traffic police number since it is the only available Mumbai police WhatsApp number. “Generally, people do not think twice about sending a message on WhatsApp…which they would in case of making calls as they assume they can be easily tracked. Also, a lot of these threats are from youngsters who are more comfortable with WhatsApp,” the officer said.
Another officer said that the main Mumbai control room helpline numbers are geo-tagged, meaning they can only be dialled from within the city. If one dials 100 or 112 from Navi Mumbai, it will automatically connect one to the Navi Mumbai police control room. To connect to the Mumbai police control room from outside the city, one needs to search for the number online which can be cumbersome to many.
The officer added that an obsession with actors like Khan and Bishnoi’s rise to infamy may also play a role in such messages being sent.
“In some cases where there is proof that the person is mentally unstable, we may not be as harsh. However, in other cases, we have been taking strict action as it results in waste of resources since sometimes, they give specific threats and the entire place has to be searched as per the standard operating procedure,” the officer added.
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