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Journalism of Courage
The Pune Rural police have started an investigation into whether the suspected hacking of the WhatsApp account of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule was a random incident or a targeted attack.
A First Information Report (FIR) in the case was registered late on Monday at Yavat Police station, and the investigation has been transferred to the Cyber Cell of the Pune Rural police, said Pankaj Deshmukh, Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural.
“The focus of our investigation is to find out whether this was a targeted attack or it was a random act of access denial hacking. An FIR in the case has been registered based on the complaint given by Supriya Sule’s personal assistant,” said an officer from the Pune Rural police.
In a post on X on Sunday, the Baramati MP appealed to people not to call or text her saying her WhatsApp account was hacked and that she had approached the police.
After receiving information, a team of the Pune Rural police initiated a probe into the matter and found that Supra Sule had lost access to her WhatsApp account on her Apple device. “While Supriya Sule was denied access to WhatsApp on her device, the account was in use from the suspect’s device. We have also come to know that her PA was in contact with this user and a ransom demand of $400 was made,” said an officer from Pune Rural police.
The officer said they contacted WhatsApp authorities and after some time, Sule’s account was restored on her Apple device. “Following our request, the unauthorised access to Sule’s WhatsApp account was disabled,” added the officer.
Supriya Sule later posted on X that her phone and WhatsApp accounts were working.
