Friend’s prank ends up in suicide of 24-year-old woman

The victim was a close friend of the suspect, Gayatri Bhoite. Upon being told by the victim’s family members that she had been depressed since the death of a man she met online, investigators looked into her online communications and found an Instagram contact named Manish Patil

MUMBAI: A 21-year-old woman was arrested for abetting the suicide of a close friend who fell in love with a fake persona she created on Instagram, police in Satara said on Wednesday.

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The victim was a 24-year-old woman whom the police described as a close friend of the suspect, Gayatri Bhoite, and was found dead on June 12.

Upon being told by the victim’s family members that she had been depressed since the death of a man she met online, investigators looked into her online communications and found an Instagram contact named Manish Patil.

Wathar police inspector Avinash Mane said police found messages that suggested the victim was regularly in touch with the contact named Patil for several months and the two had appeared to have fallen in love.

The conversations continued until she was contacted by another person on Instagram identifying himself as Manish’s father to tell her that his son had died by suicide.

When cyber police officials requested Instagram for details on the accounts, the IP address details suggested both accounts were operated by Bhoite, who was then taken into custody.

“On questioning Bhoite, she revealed that she had created a fake profile named Manish Patil, sent a friend request to the deceased, started chatting with her and made her fall in love with the non-existent man,” said Mane.

When Bhoite’s friend began insisting on meeting Manish, she thought the prank had gone too far. She then created Shivam’s profile and told the deceased on June 10 that Manish had died by suicide, and that she should get over him, the police official added.

The woman’s uncle, Dattaray Pawar, told police that the family too tried to convince her to move on. “We had tried telling her to get over him, but she did not listen to us,” said Pawar, a farmer.

The Wathar police have arrested Bhoite for abetment of suicide. “We produced Bhoite before the court, where she was remanded to judicial custody,” said Mane.