Mumbai: 34-year-old arrested for uploading obscene photos of 15 civic officials

Mira Bhayander police arrested Chandan Thakur for morphing and sharing obscene photos of a civic commissioner and 14 officials on social media.

The crime branch officers of the Mira Bhayander – Vasai Virar (MBVV) police on Thursday arrested a 34-year-old man who allegedly morphed and uploaded obscene photos of an additional commissioner of the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC), and 14 other civic officials.

The crime branch officers identified the accused as Chandan Thakur, a Virar resident. (Pexels)

According to the FIR registered by the Bolinj police on November 18, the additional commissioner was in his office at the VVCMC headquarters when he came across morphed photos of himself, and his wife uploaded on social media.

After going through the page, he found that the images were uploaded from a profile that went by the name of Kavya Mehta, and such photos were uploaded to four social media groups focussed in Latur, which is the complainant’s native.

The additional commissioner, who had ordered the demolition of 41 buildings in Vasai-Virar, had told the police that he received taunting messages from the profile of Kavya Mehta stating: “sabhi avedh nirman surakshit hain, agar aisa hi chala toh ab main kuch apne hisab se accha karunga (All unauthorized and illegal constructions are safe. If this goes on, I will take matters in my hand).”

The complainant also told the police he had received a text message from an unknown mobile number in August last year, asking him for a photo of his wife.

The sender later threatened to publish an article exposing the corruption behind his and his wife’s successful career.

The additional commissioner filed a complaint alleging the sender tried to defame him, following which a case by the Bolinj police against unknown person/s under sections 351 (2) (criminal intimidation), 353 (2) (public mischief) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

In January, four more civic officials from Vasai-Virar approached the police with similar complaints. After tracking the social media account user, the crime branch officers identified the accused as Chandan Thakur, a Virar resident, and arrested him on Thursday.

Police officers said that Thakur lived with his wife and son at Mira Road before shifting to Virar in October last year.

He was previously booked in seven cases in Mira Road and five in the Vasai-Virar region for defaming government officials and demanding money from them in exchange for taking down social media posts.

“We are now trying to find out whether Thakur had an accomplice helping him with the social media posts,” said a police officer from the crime branch.