A post is being shared on social media with a claim that the Telangana Police has started a service for women safety with a helpline number ‘9969777888’. It also claims that before boarding an auto or cab, if women send SMS of the auto number or cab number to that helpline number, an acknowledgement SMS will be received, which means that their vehicle is linked to GPRS and their travel will be monitored. There is also a post which claims that the above number is associated with Bengaluru city police’s women helpline. The same message is also being shared in various other states. Let’s try to analyze the authenticity of the claim made in those posts.
Claim: Police started a service for women safety with a helpline number ‘9969777888’ for tracking the vehicle in which they are travelling through GPRS.
Fact: The helpline number ‘9969777888’ was been started by the Mumbai police in 2014 for the safety of Mumbai women travelling in autos and cabs. However, the service was stopped in 2017. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
In the aftermath of the Gang rape incident that killed a 27-year-old veterinarian doctor last week in Hyderabad, many helpline numbers have been floated on social media claiming that women can call those numbers for their safety during emergency situations. Among them, one number ‘9833312222’ has become viral claiming that women can dial that number during emergency situations. However, an article written by us earlier showed that the information about that number is not true.
In a similar manner, the number ‘9969777888’ in the post is claimed to be the helpline number introduced by the Telangana police for women safety which links the vehicle GPRS. When the same number went viral in the past with wrong information, we had fact-checked the same and that can be seen here. The helpline number ‘9969777888’ was started by the Mumbai police in the year 2014 for the safety of Mumbai women travelling in autos and cabs. However, the service was stopped in 2017, as not many people were using it.
When the news that Telangana police introduced a helpline number ‘9969777888’ for women to track autos and cabs while travelling has become viral, the Hyderabad police tweeted on their official Twitter account stating that it is fake news. Similarly, the Bengaluru police also tweeted that the messages which are claiming that the number ‘9969777888’ is associated with BCP’s women helpline number are fake.
To summarize, the helpline number – ‘9969777888’ was started by Mumbai police to help Mumbai women travelling in autos and cabs. However, they stopped the service in 2017. So, the news that ‘9969777888’ is a helpline number for women in Telangana state or Bengaluru is False.
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