Man arrested from Mumbai for harassing woman online, posting obscene content

According to the police, the case came light after a complaint was filed by a woman from Palla Bakhtawarpur in the outer north part of Delhi, who reported that some unknown people had created Instagram accounts in her name, uploaded her images with defamatory captions and also threatened to disrupt her marriage, which had been fixed to take place in the near future.

Further, the complainant stated that she had received a call from a mobile number where the caller allegedly threatened to continue harassing her and her family.

Following a preliminary inquiry, an FIR under Section 66C of the Information Technology (IT) Act was registered on November 16.

To zero in on the accused, the police team analysed call detail records of the mobile number mentioned by the complainant, subscriber information and IP logs of the two Instagram accounts. The police also analysed two Gmail IDs which were allegedly used to harass the woman.

During the probe, police found out that all accounts had been created using the same mobile number that had been mentioned by the complainant.

“Technical tracking located the accused’s digital activity consistently in Mumbai. A mobile handset was found linked to suspicious digital activity. Evidence also confirmed that the accused created the fake Instagram IDs in October… The team conducted a raid in Sahar in Mumbai’s Andheri East, which led to the identification and arrest of the accused,” DCP (Outer North) Hareshwar Swami said.

During the investigation, a mobile phone and a laptop have been recovered from the accused, DCP Swami said. “Both the devices were switched on at the time of recovery and have been sent for detailed forensic examination,” he added.

Police said Prakash—originally from Jammu and currently living in a dormitory in Sahar Village—was responsible for the online harassment campaign. Investigators are now analysing the seized devices to determine whether he operated additional accounts or targeted other individuals. Digital evidence collection and data extraction are underway, officers added.