Ahmedabad, The Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch has arrested eight people, including a woman, and initiated legal action against three minors after registering nine FIRs over allegations of online harassment, fake social media profiles, circulation of objectionable content and blackmail, police said.
The complainants were counselled by women officers, and cases were registered while keeping their identities confidential. In another case, an accused allegedly created a fake Instagram profile using a woman’s photograph and contacted her husband’s friends impersonating her. The accused allegedly used social media to spread the allegations and damage her reputation.
Police said separate teams traced the accused through technical analysis of information gathered from social media platforms, leading to action in Ahmedabad, other parts of Gujarat, and Maharashtra. The motives include personal disputes, failed relationships, resentment following disagreements and attempts to increase social media followers and likes by posting objectionable material, police said. Police said in several instances, photographs and videos of women were misused to harass them, damage their reputation, or settle personal scores. He also allegedly uploaded objectionable photographs of the woman on the account’s stories to harass and defame her, police said. The accused had a personal dispute with the complainant after a confrontation involving his mother and the woman’s friend, according to police. Police said the cyber crime branch is monitoring social media platforms to identify fake accounts and objectionable content targeting women and children.
