While social media platforms have come as a boon to many, they have also paved the way for cyberbullies to use them as a medium for harassing people. And a recent case solved by the Mumbai police proves exactly how these online criminals have made social networks, a thriving ground for their crimes.
According to TOI, the city police have arrested a lawyer from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, for sexually harassing a college girl after becoming friends with her on Instagram. Not only that but he went on to harass her 41-year-old mother and blackmailed them over the call.
The accused has been identified as 25-year-old Chaitanya Soni, who created a fake online identity and befriended the 16-year-old girl in November 2018. He used the next five days to win the girl’s trust and managed to extract her cellphone number. However, things turned ugly when he persuaded the girl to send her nudes and started to blackmail her on receiving them.
He also used his brains to get hold of her mother’s number and continued the harassment.
That’s not all. The plan was a full-proof plan as Soni kept his identity anonymous. In a bid to hide his identity, he took the help of ‘caller ID spoofing’. Therefore, whenever he called the girl, his location showed up as Karachi. On getting continuous threats about her nudes being leaked on social media, the girl finally confessed to her mother.
They filed a police complaint about the same at the Saki Naka police station and police began their hunt for the tormentor.
The police finally approached Google at its headquarters to help them crack the case. After two months of tracking down, Google finally handed over Soni’s phone number to the police and it was all over for the lawyer.
Soni has been taken into custody and has been charged under the IPC and the stringent POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act).
But wait. Here comes the major shock. As per a police statement, at least 15 lawyers stood by Soni for his bail and said that it was the girl’s mistake to create a social media account! Fortunately, their arguments were denied by the judge.
While the Mumbai Police deserves an ovation for their brilliant work in identifying the criminal, we are appalled to know that a big group of lawyers stood in support of the ghastly act.