Fake lockdown GO: Chartered Accountant held in Hyderabad

The arrested person was S. Sanjeev Kumar (48), a CA working with a prominent firm in Banjara Hills and a resident of Madhapur.

Hyderabad: An alleged April Fool’s Day prank misfired with a 48-year-old Chartered Accountant, working with a leading financial services firm in the city, being arrested by the CCS police and the Task Force on charges of forging a government order on imposition of a lockdown.

The arrested person was identified as S Sanjeev Kumar, a CA from Nellore of Andhra Pradesh working in Banjara Hills. According to City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, Sanjeev downloaded last year’s government order (GO No.45) on imposition of the Covid-19-triggered lockdown issued by the State government and forged it. “He forged the GO by changing the dates of the lockdown to that of 2021, converted it into PDF format and shared it in his badminton WhatsApp group to fool his friends,” Anjani Kumar said.

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The group had 40 members, who then shared the PDF file among their friends, who shared the same on different social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook as well, where it went viral and triggered panic among the public, the police said.

Sanjeev Kumar, by forging a GO as one issued by the Chief Secretary of the State with the intention of cheating others, was therefore arrested, the Commissioner said.

With the fake GO going viral, there was panic among the public since the forged one resembled an original one closely. Following this, a case was booked by the Hyderabad Cybercrime police, who traced the origin of the message to Sajeev Kumar, who was then arrested.

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