KARACHI: About 95 per cent of calls made to Madadgar-15 in a month are prank calls, according to official data, made only to poke fun at law enforcers but police authorities have now decided to move into action against the prank callers under The Telegraph Act,1885.

A software specially developed for the purpose had been installed at all helpline Madadgar-15 offices to trace the callers who were wasting time and resources of the law-enforcement agency, said officials on Wednesday.

They said the decision to go after the pranksters was made by IGP Iqbal Mahmood Khan when he learnt about the nuisance at a recently held briefing about the helpline service.

“The software will block all the numbers from where prank calls were usually made,” said an official citing details of a recently held meeting on the issue at the central police office (CPO). It was attended by DIG crime, DIG headquarters and training and all three zonal DIGs of south, west and east.

“The data shared by the officials concerned at the meeting took many by surprise, according to which some 95 per cent calls made to Madadgar-15 in a month were categorised as prank calls as they were made only to poke fun at police or as pastime. Efforts were made several times to avoid the nuisance but nothing could be done to get rid of them once and for all,” he said.

Also read: Police helpline received 90pc prank calls last year

The problem became so serious that the authorities had to acquire the technology for blocking such calls and recognising the callers’ voice to help in their arrest under Section 25-D of The Telegraph Act 1885, he said.

The Section 25-D says: “Any person, who uses any telephone, public or private, for causing annoyance or intimidation to any person, whether a subscriber or not, or for obnoxious calls shall, without prejudice to any other action which the Telegraph Authority is competent to make under this Act, be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”

Sindh IGP Iqbal Mahmood Khan told Dawn that the decision had been made as a last resort as the people who were source of prank calls were in fact not only wasting time and resources of the law-enforcement agency but also depriving genuine complainant of getting his or her call connected to the helpline.

“Think about a man or woman in distress who makes a call to police helpline but cannot not get through only because of these prank calls,” said.

“We have acquired the technology solely for the purpose of blocking such numbers generating prank calls. We will then take action against all the callers and book them under the defined laws,” he said.

He said that the number of police helpline centres working in the city was 15 and they would soon be increased to 22 under a comprehensive plan to enhance the service.

Meanwhile, data released by the CPO said that during first six months of the year (January to June 2014) Madadgar-15 received 41,314 calls relating to crimes. “Among them 621 calls were about robbery, 544 about vehicles snatching, 896 vehicle theft, 1,402 motorcycle snatching, 2,158 motorcycle theft and 5,135 calls related to mobile phone snatching,” said the data.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd , 2014