17-year-old detained for circulating morphed pictures of teenage girls

A 17-year-old boy was arrested for hacking into a girl's Instagram account and circulating morphed pictures of two other teenage girls in Mumbai.

A 17-year-old boy who allegedly hacked into the Instagram account of a minor girl from his neighbourhood in Vakola and circulated morphed pictures of two other teenage girls was arrested on Friday.

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“After the pictures went viral, the two girls thought my daughter was trying to defame them due to some personal enmity. However, when my daughter tried to log in to her account to delete the posts, she could not,” mother of the 13-year-old girl said in her complaint.

She also said the families of the two girls – aged 12 and 17 – approached her to resolve the issue, but she told them that her daughter’s Instagram account was possibly hacked.

Police on Thursday registered a case against an unknown person under section 354 D (stalking), 509 (outraging the modesty of a woman), 500 (defamation) and 469 (forgery for the purpose of defamation) of the Indian Penal Code, section 8 (sexual assault) and 12 (sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and section 66E (violation of privacy), 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form), 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form) and 67B (publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

The teenager was identified and on Friday morning, a team from unit 8 of Mumbai crime branch visited his residence and questioned him in front of his father, a police officer said.

“On checking his mobile phone, we found that the Instagram handle that was used to circulate the morphed pictures was logged in. We also found obscene pictures of the older of the two girls,” the officer said, adding the boy was handed over to the Vakola police.

On being questioned, the teenager allegedly claimed that he along with two others – both aged 18 – from the locality had hacked into the 13-year-old’s Instagram account, the police said.

The teenager was detained and was sent to a children’s home. A search is on for the two who are absconding, the police said.

Investigation revealed that the teenager and the older of the two girls were good friends until a few months ago, the officer said and added that the morphed pictures had been posted on the girl’s Instagram account since March.

Meanwhile, the girls whose pictures were circulated were finding it difficult to step out of their houses, their parents said.

“My daughter has stopped going to school due to the embarrassment caused by this incident. It is just a small relief that the culprit has been caught. My daughter seems to be scared for her life at this tender age,” the mother of the 12--year-old said. She feared that her daughter might lose an entire academic year due to her poor mental health.

The mother of the other girl said everyone in the locality had known about the incident. “Despite not doing anything wrong our daughters are suffering this embarrassment. She even tried to consume detergent with an intention to harm herself, but thankfully I stopped her just in time,” she said.