New Delhi: Police said they arrested a 19-year-old Bihar IIT student on Thursday after he allegedly stalked female students and teachers on social media and uploaded morphed versions of their pictures.
Mahavir hails from Patna and is studying B.tech at IIT-Kharagpur. Police said that he had harassed more than 50 girls from a reputed school in north Delhi. Mahavir allegedly used fake caller ID apps and virtual numbers on WhatsApp to connect with the victims. He also used a voice-changing app to hide his identity. Police also said that he created fake Instagram profiles in their names and posted morphed photos of the victims. The matter came to light after a complaint about cyber stalking was submitted on Wednesday by the school administration.
According to the complaint, the accused stalked girls on social media and sent them WhatsApp messages. He harassed the teachers by calling them from various international numbers. This IIT student joined the WhatsApp group created for online classes and also participated in the classes, according to the complaint. There were several morphed photos of the students on social media platforms, according to the report. A case was registered under section 354-D (stalking) of Indian Penal Code at Civil Lines police station and the district’s cyber cell unit was roped in for technical assistance and later relevant sections of the POCSO Act and IT Act were added in the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.
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The police questioned the school students, their parents, and teachers in the course of the investigation. Police officials said the accused used fake caller identification apps to place several calls and used 33 virtual numbers on WhatsApp and five Instagram accounts. ‘Our team analysed details of IP logs of WhatsApp, Instagram and fake mail ID used for creating social media accounts and identified the accused as Mahavir. He was then traced to Patna in Bihar from where he was arrested,’ Kalsi said.
The police discovered that the accused has been stalking and harassing one of the victims for three years by analyzing their mobile numbers, he said. ‘Mahavir is pursuing B.Tech from one of the IITs. He came in contact with one of the students of the school and started contacting her friends on Instagram and other social media platforms. Since he had good knowledge of apps, he used it to stalk and harass minor girls,’ the DCP said. The police said obscene videos and photographs were also found on the accused’s mobile phone and laptop, adding that both were seized.
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