A 19-year-old IIT student was arrested from Bihar on Thursday for allegedly stalking girl students and teachers of a reputed school and uploading their morphed pictures on social media, police said.
Mahavir, a resident of Patna, is pursuing his BTech from IIT Kharagpur.
According to the police, he harassed more than 50 girl students and teachers of a reputed school in North Delhi.
He said that Mahavir used the app for fake caller ID and virtual number WhatsApp To contact the victims. He also used a voice changer app to hide his identity.
Police said that he posted pictures of the victims on a fake Instagram profile created in their name.
The matter came to light after receiving a complaint from the school administration on Wednesday regarding cyber stalking.
According to the complaint, the accused followed the minor girls on social media and messaged them on WhatsApp.
He called the teachers from various international numbers and harassed them.
The complaint states that the IIT student joined the WhatsApp group created for online classes and also entered the classes.
It said that several morphed pictures of school students were circulated on social media platforms.
A case was registered under section 354-D (chasing) of the Indian Penal Code at the Civil Lines Police Station and the Cyber Cell unit of the district was engaged for technical assistance and later in the matter under the relevant provisions of the POCSO Act and the IT Act. streams were added. Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.
The police questioned the school students, their parents and teachers as part of the investigation.
Police officials said they managed to identify 33 WhatsApp virtual numbers, five Instagram profiles and several calls made by the accused using the fake caller ID app.
Kalsi said, “Our team analyzed the details of IP logs of WhatsApp, Instagram and fake mail IDs used to create social media accounts and identified the accused as Mahavir. He was then traced to Patna, Bihar. from where he was arrested.”
He said that on analyzing the mobile numbers, the police came to know that the accused had contacted one of the victims three years ago and since then he was stalking and harassing her.
“Mahaveer is pursuing B.Tech from one of the IITs. He came in contact with one of the school students and started contacting his friends on Instagram and other social media platforms. Since he had good knowledge of apps, So he used it to chase and harass minor girls,” the DCP said.
Several obscene videos and photographs were also found in the mobile phone of the accused, the police said, adding that his phone and laptop have been confiscated. PTI AMP SNE SNE
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.
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