Director of Balaji Telefilms files complaint after being harassed by a woman online

Mumbai

Mumbai. Jason Ashok Kothari, 41, one of the board of directors in Balaji Telefilms Ltd and also director of Gurgaon-based realty developer Emaar India, has filed a complaint with the Malabar Hill police station after someone hacked his Facebook account and posted objectionable messages on his wall.

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Kothari has alleged that last year, he had refused a marriage proposal of a woman and suspects she could be behind the malicious act. However, the police have not named her as an accused in the complaint. The police on Wednesday filed an FIR against an unidentified person and has begun investigation into the matter.

In the police complaint, Kothari, a Nepeansea Road resident, has stated that between June 2021 and January 18, 2023, an unidentified person created a fake Facebook account in the name of a woman Shreya Singhaniya and sent him a friend request.

Kothari first accepted the request, but later blocked her after he discovered that the said account is bogus as it had a profile picture of some other woman, who is a doctor.

After he blocked the account he received various abuses, threats and defamatory messages via various social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. These messages were also sent to his friends and family members, a police officer said.

Kothari said in his statement that between 21-24 June, 2022, his Facebook account was hacked by someone, who posted objectionable messages in his name and also sent the same to people in his friends list.

Kothari has named a woman as a suspect who could be behind the entire act. He came in contact with this woman in January 2022 through LinkedIn. Kothari was in her contact for few months and also gave her guidance on how to grow business, over video call meetings.

Kothari has stated in the FIR that between September 2021 to March 2022, he received marriage proposal from this woman via a New Delhi-based matrimonial portal. But he refused the proposal owing to some personal reasons. But after this, the woman started harassing him by various means, he alleged in the complaint.

On Kothari’s complaint, the police have registered an FIR against an unidentified person under sections 500, 504, 506 of Indian Penal Code and 65, 66 and 66c of Information Technology Act. The police have written to the service providers seeking details of the accounts used in the commission of the crime.