J&K Govt summons Facebook India Head after user complains of cyber fraud

Jammu: In an interesting development, the J&K government has summoned the country head of Facebook in India along with other corporate head honchos after a complaint of online fraud was filed by a Jammu resident.

Taking cognizance of a complaint filed under IT Act 2000, by Jammu resident Vivek Sagar through Deepak Sharma, Advocate, J&K High Court, the Secretary Information Technology Department, J&K Government directed Ajit Mohan, Country Head, Facebook India, to appear in person before the adjudicating officer on 12 November.

The notice for appearance among others was also issued to Rajiv Jain, Director Bajaj Finance Ltd., Pritesh Lahoti & Dinesh Kadam Director Quadrant Televentures Ltd.

The notice was issued by S. Simarndeep Singh,  Adjudicating Officer (Secretary IT department, J&K Govt) after the complaint under section 46 of the Information Technology Act 2000 was filed by the complainant through his counsel against Facebook India and others for allegedly cheating the complainant .

The Complainant has alleged that Facebook and other respondents have violated the provisions of the IT Act 2000 and have cheated and defrauded him of Rs 20700.

“By such acts of omissions and commissions on the part of respondents, the complainant has suffered not only financially but also mentally as the respondents by making contraventions of the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, has caused undue loss to the complainant by dishonestly inducing the complainant to transfer an amount of Rs 20,700 in to the bank account number of the respondent,” the complaint reads.

“As such, in order to the inquiry/adjudicate into the allegations leveled by the Complainant, you are hereby directed to appear in person before the undersigned office on 12th of November 2020 at 11 am in the forenoon,” the notice reads.

Pertinently, under section 46 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Secretary, Department of Information Technology is designated as Adjudicating Officer by the Government to deal with complaints in which the claim for injury or damages does not exceed rupees 5 Crore.