Ranchi, Feb 7: As Valentine’s Week starts with promises of love, roses, and heartfelt commitments, cybercriminals are also gearing up to exploit emotions for financial fraud.

Amidst the celebration of romance, authorities are stepping up efforts to protect people from falling victim to “romance scams.”

To counter these digital deceptions, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Union Home Ministry, has launched a special awareness campaign on social media, running parallel to Valentine’s Week.

Using the hashtag #RomanceScamPreventionWeek, officials are spreading crucial information to help people identify and avoid online scams disguised as love.

The Jharkhand Police has also joined the initiative, posting alerts on its official social media handles. One of the campaign’s eye-catching posters, shared on the I4C X handle, poses a thought-provoking question: “What will you do if your online sweetheart asks you for money?”

The post further warns: “This romance season, don’t get duped in the name of love! Join Cyber Dost in Romance Scam Prevention Week and learn how to outsmart scammers.”

Authorities are urging people to stay vigilant and report fraud immediately by calling 1930 or lodging a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in.

A cyber police officer in Ranchi highlighted a recent case where a woman fell prey to a romance scam. She met a man through a matrimonial site, exchanged numbers, and began building a connection. The man planned a visit to Ranchi, but just before their meeting, he claimed he was detained at Delhi airport and needed urgent financial help. Believing his story, she transferred Rs 7 lakh — only to realise later that his profile had vanished without a trace.

With online romance on the rise, the cyber police’s message is clear — Trust your heart, but verify with your mind. Don’t let emotions cloud your judgment — because in the digital world, not every love story is real.

Jammu, Feb 7: Five Pakistani terrorists were killed on Friday in a landmine blast near the Line of Control (LoC) while trying to infiltrate into Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) Poonch district.

Official sources said that the five Pakistani militants were killed in the landmine explosion while attempting to infiltrate across the LoC in Battal sector of Poonch.

They said that the Pakistani terrorists were attempting to infiltrate into Indian territory when one of them stepped onto a landmine.

“One of them stepped on a landmine, triggering a huge explosion that killed all five terrorists. They were also carrying an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) with them, which also exploded, adding to the damage,” sources said.

The LoC area has been fitted with landmines by the Indian Army to prevent infiltration by the terrorists.

In addition to night vision devices, electronic surveillance and human preparedness, the landmines are an important part of the anti-infiltration mechanism in J&K.

Usually the area close to the LoC is called ‘no man’s land’ thereby signalling that nobody should tread on this land.

Security forces and the Indian Army have heightened vigil along the LoC and the hinterland in J&K as very less snowfall this season so far has left all mountain routes used by the terrorists open in the UT.

Union Home Minister, Amit Shah chaired a high level security meeting on J&K recently.

The Home Minister advised security forces to ensure ‘zero infiltration’ and ‘zero tolerance’ to terrorists.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of the recent murder of an ex-serviceman, Manzoor Ahmad Wagay by terrorists in Kulgam district of the Valley.

The retired soldier’s wife and daughter were injured in the terrorist attack.

There was a political uproar in J&K after the ex-serviceman’s killing as local politicians of the ruling National Conference, Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party criticised the Centre for claiming normalcy in the UT.

Kolkata, Feb 7: A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday morning rejected the admissibility of the petition by the West Bengal government seeking death penalty for Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the R.G. Kar rape and murder tragedy.

However, a similar petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also seeking death penalty for Roy has been accepted by the Division Bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi.

The Division Bench also observed that as the investigation agency in the rape and murder crime, only the CBI reserves the right to file a petition in the matter and the state government does not have any locus standi to file such a petition.

The hearing on the admissibility of the petitions by both CBI and the state government concluded on January 27.

However, the Division Bench reserved the judgment on that day.

Last month a special court in Kolkata sentenced Roy to life imprisonment for the crime of rape and murder of the woman junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in August last year.

The judge of the special court Anirban Das observed that since the crime could not be considered as the “rarest of rare”, the sole convict was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of death penalty.

Thereafter, first the West Bengal government and then the CBI approached the court challenging the special court order and seeking death penalty for Roy.

The CBI, at the same time, challenged the locus standi of the state government in making such an appeal.

However, the parents of the victim have already claimed that they do not want the death penalty for Roy since they believe that the erstwhile civic volunteer attached to the Kolkata Police was not the sole culprit in the ghastly rape and murder of their daughter.

The victim’s parents have already been subjected to unprecedented verbal attacks from a section of the ruling Trinamool Congress leadership for their observation against the death penalty for the sole convict now.