After pro-Palestine post, Bandra police link man to sextortion

Officials have launched an inquiry into the incident related to an unrelated sextortion case.

Days after a Telangana-based IT professional criticised the Bandra police for allegedly harassing and searching a woman’s home over a pro-Palestine kite-flying post, the police sought his personal details from social media platform X, formerly Twitter, allegedly identifying him as the “main accused” in an unrelated sextortion case, he has alleged.

Jeet said he was alerted by X that the Bandra police had requested his name, phone number, email address and location details. (HT PRINT)

Senior police officials have ordered an inquiry into the complaint and said appropriate action will be taken if anyone is found guilty.

The 34-year-old, who identifies himself as Jeet, said he was alerted by X on September 23 that the Bandra police had requested his name, phone number, email address and IP/location details in connection with a sextortion case registered on July 2.

Jeet said he had no connection with the case cited in the police request. He said the request came four days after he criticised the Bandra police in an X post over their alleged action against a woman who had flown a kite in solidarity with Palestinian children on the occasion of Global Gaza Kite Weekend between September 11 and 15. In the same post, he also criticised chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and other ruling-party leaders over what he described as misuse of power.

The FIR cited in the request relates to a sextortion complaint filed by a 30-year-old Bandra resident. According to the FIR, the complainant accepted an Instagram follow request from an account named ‘dhwniiiiii’, whose user introduced herself as Dhwani Sanghvi from Nashik.

The woman allegedly obtained the complainant’s WhatsApp number and began chatting with him. He was later asked to go to a bathroom, where an obscene video was allegedly recorded. At around 2.14am, the complainant received a video showing himself and was allegedly threatened with its release unless he paid ₹27,000.

The complainant subsequently approached the Bandra police, following which a case was registered against the person using the WhatsApp number under the Information Technology Act.

Jeet said he was disturbed that an FIR in which he had no involvement was allegedly used to obtain his information from X.

“Police should be protecting people, not using their power to intimidate citizens for expressing political views. People should be free to stand with Palestinians, criticise the government or the police without being afraid that the state will come after them,” he said.

When contacted, DCP (Zone 9) Mohit Kumar Garg said, “An inquiry has been launched into the complaint, and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings.”