Delhi Police have apprehended a 17-year-old college student for allegedly stalking and harassing a minor girl on Instagram and forcing her to share private pictures, an official said here on Friday.
The accused is presently pursuing graduation from School of open learning. Threatening to circulate her nude pictures which he had accessed online, the accused demanded more such pictures and sought sexual favours.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi, the girl's father lodged a complaint regarding the crime through Cyber Portal at Cyber North police station. He alleged that his 14 year-old-daughter shared her personal pictures and videos with someone through Instagram chats and apprehended that video might be circulated.
"However, the victim's father was reluctant to initiate legal action. The girl disclosed that she had shared her private pictures and video with a friend on Instagram and now he has been pressuring her to indulge into inappropriate chats and send more such pictures," said the DCP.
During the investigation, police collected details of the Instagram profile, including IP addresses and mobile number used in the registration of the alleged profile.
"The details of these IP addresses were further obtained from concerned mobile operators, from where, the mobile number and IMEI number used in the offence were found and the identity of the alleged person was ascertained," said the DCP.
"A question was also raised after the pictures used by the alleged Instagram user were of a boy around the age of 17 to 20 years, whereas the user of the alleged SIM card was around the age of 50 years," said the official.
However, police reached the address on which the SIM card was registered only to find that no such person ever stayed at the mentioned address.
"A team was assigned to verify the actual address of the alleged Instagram user with the SIM card dealer while the second team on the case was rushed to the live location of the alleged person, obtained on the basis of the call details record of his mobile number and started the search for him," said the DCP.
"Finally, 3-4 hours of foot-work and inquiry with the grocery store owners and local vendors bore fruit, when the picture used by the alleged Instagram user was identified by a local boy, who claimed to know this person and further led the team to his present house address," said the DCP.
The boy, who was using the SIM card on his father's name was not available at home, however, his father was directed by police to produce him before police, who ensured the same.
"His father produced him and he was then apprehended in the case, " said the DCP.
"He told police that he came in possession of some private pictures of a girl and started following her on Instagram. He kept her private pictures saved in his mobile phone and used to stalk her online all the time. After befriending her, he started asking for her nude photos, but when the girl did not agree to his demands, he further told her that he has her private pictures already," said the official.
He even showed those pictures to the victim girl and demanded for cheap talks and more private pictures. "On inspection of his mobile phone recovered from him, it has been found that he was harassing many other young girls using the same tactics.
The accused had forced his parents to buy him an I-phone to impress these girls," said the official. (HN/NewsGram)