Man held for stalking woman for 4 years, creating fake Instagram accounts to harass her

After the woman’s complaint, police traced him using technical investigation and recovered evidence from his mobile phone.

A 27-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly stalking a woman since 2022 and repeatedly creating fake Instagram accounts in her name to harass her and her family members, a police officer said.

Delhi police recovered a mobile phone allegedly used to commit the offence from the accused’s possession. (Hindustan Times)

The accused, a resident of New Ashok Nagar who works at a private firm in Noida, allegedly used the fake social media accounts, carrying the victim’s name and photographs, to send obscene videos and images to her husband, in-laws and family members, said the police.

The case was registered under Section 67A of the Information Technology Act after a complaint by the woman in July, who told police that an unknown person had been repeatedly harassing her through social media. The woman had flagged the fake accounts with Meta, which suspended them, but the accused kept creating new accounts.

“The technical investigation helped us trace the person behind these accounts,” said DCP (Northeast) Rahul Alwal.

Police said the accused had been stalking the woman since 2022. After she got married, he started harassing her on social media. She did not file a complaint against him at the time.

Police recovered a mobile phone allegedly used to commit the offence from the accused’s possession. During interrogation, Kumar told police that he knew the victim and had been following her since 2022.

He created the fake profiles with the intention of defaming and harassing the woman. Investigators are examining the recovered phone and other evidence as part of the probe.

Kumar has no previous involvement in any criminal case, police said.