J&K Dy CM’s fake social media account crops up weeks after appointment; Surinder Kumar cautions netizens

Within days after his appointment as Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, a fake social media account of Surinder Kumar Choudhary was created by some anti-social elements to cheat the officers and common masses.

Taking note of his fake social media account, Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister on Monday flagged a fake account in his name created on the social networking site ‘X’ and tagged the police for action.

The fake social media account has a picture of Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary.
The fake account impersonating Choudhary cropped up on X within a fortnight after the formation of a new government headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

Sharing a picture of the fake profile in a post on X, the deputy chief minister said, “This is a fake account created by some miscreant.” He requested the people not to follow the fake account and also tagged the chief minister and the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Choudhary appointed as Deputy Chief Minister in Omar Abdullah’s government.

After defeating J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina, Surinder Kumar Choudhary was appointed as Deputy Chief Minister in the Omar Abdullah government to reward for his historic victory and to give representation to Jammu province.

Choudhary, a National Conference MLA from the Nowshera Assembly segment, took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, along with Omar Abdullah, who took oath as Chief Minister on October 16.

Choudhary’s journey to this position began with his victory in the Nowshera constituency, where he defeated outspoken BJP’s Ravinder Raina by a substantial margin of 7,819 votes. This win signified a major shift in the constituency’s political landscape, as Raina had previously held the seat since 2014. Surinder Choudhary got 35,069 votes while Ravinder Raina secured 27,250 votes.

Earlier fake accounts of LG, ex-DGP were created.

Some anti-social elements have earlier created fake social media accounts of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and former Director General of J&K Police, R R Swain. A fake ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) account of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha was detected in August 2020, just after he took over as LG of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

“We have started getting complaints that a Twitter handle in the name of honourable L-G has come up and that he has been responding to congratulatory messages. We took cognizance of the matter. An FIR has been registered and investigations have been initiated”, a senior police officer had stated at that time.

The fake Twitter handle had a picture of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.

Fraudsters had created a fake WhatsApp profile of the former Director General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, RR Swain, in November 2023.

“A delinquent/ fraudster has created a fake WhatsApp profile using the number +998914128090 having the photo of DGP J&K, Shri Rashmi Ranjan Swain, IPS as DP,” said a police spokesman after detecting the fake account a year ago.