The cyber cell officials of the Mumbai crime branch have arrested a 32-year-old Dombivali resident, who allegedly morphed pictures of a 28-year-old woman and posted it on a social networking site.
The arrested accused has been identified as Amit Karkhanis, who lives with his family in Dombivali (east). He was arrested on the complaint of Reema Sawant (name changed), who works as portfolio manager with a private bank.
According to the police, Sawant had approached the cyber crime investigation cell last year, after she learnt that somebody has been using her name, pictures and e-mail ID to chat with other people and upload objectionable photos. She realised this when a former colleague of hers informed her that someone had been chatting with him on an Internet messenger service. Later, a few more people contacted her to verify if she was the same woman who had been chatting with them.
Even as the police was conducting its investigation in the matter, Sawant recently learnt that her profile was on a modelling photography-cum-adult dating website. “Sawant saw morphed pictures of her on the website. The profile also described her in a very vulgar manner. She realised that the accused had used pictures of her that she posted on her social networking site profile,” said a crime branch officer, requesting anonymity.
Sawant had named three people as suspects to the investigators. The police finally succeeded in tracing the IP address of the computer from which the pictures had been uploaded on the website. “The IP address was found to be of Amit Karkhanis who is one of the suspects Sawant had named. Karkhanis was subsequently arrested on Saturday,” said another officer. The probe revealed that Karkhanis had feelings for Sawant, and had even approached her, but was rebuffed. In a bid to harass her, he then used her name, pictures and posted vulgar content on the website. He has been arrested under relevant sections of IPC and IT Act.