In the Outer North District of the capital, police spent two hours a day on Instagram, not leisure, but part of digital surveillance strategies. A report by Devanshi Mehta in the Indian era said that every reel was intentional and that every reel was a potential potential leader.
“While most people use Instagram to watch reels or check for updates, we deliberately eat content from specific types of accounts,” a police officer told TOI. “It’s like training the app to think we’re interested in gang activities. It works the same way as how a food video can flood your feed in more of the same way. We use the same mechanism to identify individuals with gun-related content.”
Red flags, hashtags and followers
Officials first need to identify common red flags, such as the Instagram username featuring “302”, a reference to Article 302 of the Indian Criminal Code, which is related to murder. “It’s more than just a signal. Those who show off 302 in the handle mean they have committed or have a serious crime,” said Nidhin Valsan of DCP (Foreign North).
The hashtag also provides clues. Just like #food or #travel clusters revolve around specific interests, #Tillugang, #HimansHubhau, #lawrencebishnoi and #Bawaniya link users to well-known gang networks.
Once a suspicious account is marked, the police will dig deeper – review followers, followers, marked positions and positions. This often leads to identifying a wider network of individuals, either possessing weapons or showing signs of gangster desire. The digital association traces are traced in a loop to what users follow, follow them, and interact with them. “It’s not just a show-off weapon. These young people are in influence, street credibility and followers,” an official told TOI. “They worship gangsters and try to copy their online characters.” Even Instagram Bios can reveal – people like “Tillu bhai Zindabad” or “gogi bhai forever” are not random tributes. “They are virtual handshakes, signal loyalty or desire,” the official added.
As the algorithm provides more targeted content, the pattern begins to emerge. Police then map these digital trails into the real world. “Common locations in the outer North District include the expressway, a stadium in Bawana and the park in Narela,” a senior official told TOI. “In Nangloi, Ranhola and some other areas have also marked similar hot spots.”
Once these physical locations are determined, monitoring is installed and suppression is performed. “Under the Weapons Act, we conducted cross-checks through field sources, behavioral inspections and suspects,” an official said.
Technical input has become the core of this operation. Catching phones in the raid often expose the entire digital ecosystem – Whittap organizes negotiations on weapons deals, new social media accounts, and even unreleased videos. “We recovered everything from the country pistol just by studying social media content,” another official said.
The undercover police even created a fake forgery that pretended to be a bait suspect. In many cases, they don’t even have to take the first step. One smiled and said, “People themselves are going to join or offer to show the weapons they have.”
According to DCP (external) Sachin Sharma, the department is now exploring artificial intelligence to expand these efforts. “AI can be used to automatically detect gun images, which will make our behavior faster and more extensive,” he said.
The flashy post shows the high engagement of weapons or rash driving racks on social media. But when the individual involved is identified the moment the police team moves in. “With the weapons being seized and arrested, we also wrote to social media platforms to deactivate such accounts,” Sharma said. “This helps prevent the glory of gun culture and limits its ability to influence or recruit others.”
Input with TOI
