The complaint was filed against two YouTube channels — Karma News and Seethalism — for allegedly misinterpreting Sheela's statements.
Published Jul 25, 2024 | 8:14 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 25, 2024 | 8:14 PM
The family of Arjun, who went missing in a landslide in Karnataka’s Ankola, has lodged a complaint at the Kozhikode Cyber Police Station concerning a cyber attack they faced after a press meet held by Arjun's mother, Sheela.
The family of Arjun, who went missing in a landslide at Shirur village in Karnataka’s Ankola, lodged a complaint at the Kozhikode Cyber Police Station concerning a cyber attack they faced after a press meet held by Arjun’s mother, Sheela.
The complaint was filed on Thursday, 24 July, against two Malayalam YouTube channels — Karma News and Seethalism—for allegedly misinterpreting Sheela’s statements.
The Kozhikode Cyber Police Wing confirmed receipt of the complaint.
“We have received a complaint from Arjun’s family regarding a cyber attack. We will investigate the matter promptly and take necessary action,” a representative from the cyber wing told South First.
Sheela’s sister Hema highlighted the family’s distress noting that Sheela, who recently underwent major surgery, is struggling to cope with the added pressure.
The press meet was organised to prevent miscommunication through media, but the family has been facing overwhelming cyber attacks since then.
“The entire Kerala is aware of the hardship we are facing. Despite our efforts to communicate clearly, the cyber attack has been severe. Whenever we search for updates, we encounter misleading content targeting my sister,” Hema told South First.
The family, acknowledging their respect for the military’s efforts in rescue operations, stated that their complaint is focused on addressing the misrepresentation and misleading content spread by Karma News and Seethalism.
They have requested the cyber wing to take action against these channels and remove the videos from YouTube platforms to alleviate the additional stress imposed by these attacks.
Meanwhile, not leaving anything to chance, the rescue team at the landslide site at Shirur village in Karnataka has deployed a privately developed drone platform-based intelligent underground buried object detection system on Thursday to help them find Arjun.
lnwork Technologies, a partner firm of Quick Pay Pvt Ltd in Noida, has developed this system, which allegedly can operate under adverse conditions and detect buried objects such as weapons caches, mines, tunnels, bodies and other foreign objects up to a depth of 30 meters in soil and water.
Superintendent of police, Uttara Kannada district, M Narayana, confirmed that retired Maj Gen lndrabalan, operations advisor of Quick Pay, is assisting the team at present.
“Army rafting team, along with the equipment, has confirmed the location with high positive reading. Once the radar search is over, army divers will go into the river in search of a human body,” said Narayana.
He also said on 25 July morning, during re-run, the Ebinger Ferromagnetic Locator provided by College of Military Engineering (CME) Pune, identified three distinct spots.
“Challenge now is, we have to identify which of the three is the cabin. It is the most critical information for divers. Our entire effort is to locate the lorry cabin among the three spots, to provide a decision point for the divers on their plan of action,” said Narayana.
Arjun was driving the lorry loaded with timber to Kozhikode when the landslide occurred on 16 July. He has been missing for 10 days now, and is presumed dead.
Meanwhile, MLAs from Kerala, who are at the site, putting pressure on Karnataka, said on Thursday that the operation to locate Arjun has been intensified.
LDF MLAs Sachin Dev and Linto Joseph and UDF legislator AKM Ashraf, who are monitoring the operations at the landslide site, told reporters that all preparations have been completed for the diving team to enter the waters and look for Arjun.
They are using a boom excavator to clear the riverbed right now, and another one is expected to arrive soon, Joseph said.
Ashraf said water flow and the sudden change in weather were the hurdles being faced in carrying out the search and rescue operations.
Dev said if the plan formulated by the experts can be implemented, “then we are confident that our goal can be achieved”.
Congress MP MK Raghavan too expressed hope that soon Arjun would be found as the lorry has been located.
Raghavan said the Karnataka government has made use of all agencies, including NDRF, and the army and navy to look for Arjun.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil with PTI inputs)
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