Class 12 student held for harassing air-hostess trainee on Instagram
A Class 12 student was apprehended for allegedly stalking, threatening, and harassing a 20-year-old woman on social media to establish sexual relations with her, police said on Thursday. "On the basis of technical inputs, the 17-year-old boy was identified by the police as a resident of Delhi's Krishna Nagar," it said, adding that the case was solved within five hours of receiving the complaint.
Accused sent obscene content to the victim on social media
"The matter came to notice on Wednesday when the woman, who is pursuing an air hostess course, approached the police with her complaint alleging that she was being stalked by a person on Instagram," the police said. "The person sent the woman obscene content on the social media portal's messenger and insisted on having a sexual relationship with him," the police added.
Accused sent an email to the victim using spoofed ID
After examining the complaint, the police found that the accused also sent her an email using a spoofed email ID. "The girl stated that she was being extremely harassed for three to four days by the alleged profile user," a senior police officer said.
Juvenile was produced before Juvenile Justice Board
The officer said, "When we analyzed the email ID, it was found that the culprit was using VPN (Virtual Private Network) for accessing the email account. After examining the collected information with the help of technical surveillance and cyber forensic tools, the identity of the alleged profile user was identified and subsequently he was apprehended." The juvenile was produced before Juvenile Justice Board.
Case registered under several sections of IPC
Based on the complaint, a case was registered under Indian Penal Code Sections 354(D) (stalking), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), and 509 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult modesty of a woman) at Jagat Puri Police Station, said R Sathiyasundaram, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara). "A mobile phone used for operating the email ID and the Instagram account was recovered," the police said.
Online harassment has increased over the past few years
Over the past few years, cyber harassment has increased tremendously. In March this year, a man from Delhi's Patel Nagar was arrested for allegedly hacking into the social media account of his cousin's fiancé last year and morphing her photographs, after which the girl allegedly died by suicide in January 2021. In 2018, Supermodel Natasha Suri's name was tagged on various porn websites.
