Man held for stalking, harassing over 50 women and girls on social media

Police on Wednesday said they had arrested a 19-year-old man from Faridabad for allegedly harassing more than 50 girls and women by stalking them on various social media sites, posing as a woman, and then morphing their photographs

Police on Wednesday said they had arrested a 19-year-old man from Faridabad for allegedly harassing more than 50 girls and women by stalking them on various social media sites, posing as a woman, and then morphing their photographs.

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Several morphed and objectionable pictures were found on the mobile phone recovered from the arrested person. He has been booked for using children for pornographic purpose, a case regarding which was registered at a police station in south-west Delhi on a girl’s complaint, the police said.

The arrested man, identified as Rahim Khan, has studied up to class 8 and was allegedly involved in operating various morphing mobile applications, deputy commissioner of police (south-west) Ingit Pratap Singh said.

DCP Singh said the police had received a complaint that an unknown person started sending the complainant her morphed pictures on her social media account.

Based on technical inquiry and details obtained from the social media site, a cyber cell team of the south-west district traced the location of the suspect and nabbed him from his house in Haryana’s Faridabad on Tuesday, the police said.

During interrogation, Khan admitted to his involvement in the crime and revealed that he had victimised over 50 girls and women across the country for personal satisfaction, a police officer associated with the case said.

“Khan used to send them (girls and women) messages with sexual connotations on social media platforms pretending to be a woman. He even targeted minors and morphed their pictures,” the officer said.

The police said they have recovered incriminating evidence including chat details, video clips and photographs of various women from Khan’s mobile phone. Further investigation is underway, the police said, adding that efforts are being made to contact the other victims.