Mumbai: Months after a reputed adman, Sudarshan Banerjee, was accused of sexual harassment amid the #MeToo movement, Powai police arrested an IT professional for defaming the complainant on social media through fake accounts.
The arrest was made late on Sunday evening with the help of technical evidence, after which the accused, Utkarsh Mehta (27) revealed he had made fake accounts in the name of his female friends who were sexually harassed by Banerjee.
In October 2018, when the #MeToo movement was spreading like wildfire across the globe, four social media posts made by anonymous users had surfaced, outlining their experiences of working with Banerjee.
The anonymous users, all former employees of Banerjee’s company, Utopia Communications, had accused him of sexual harassment. Moreover, the posts were shared with the electronic and social media by one of Banerjee’s rivals, which maligned the adman and his company’s image, said advocate Anirban Roy.
When Banerjee approached police in October, Powai Police lodged a non-cognisable complaint and refused to file an FIR. Since Banerjee’s image was maligned in the advertising world, he approached the Andheri Magistrate Court to register an FIR.
On March 6, the Andheri court directed Powai police to register the FIR and begin a probe. “After a case was registered, we tracked the IP address of the posts made on the social media, leading us to a Thane-based IT professional, who had posted the defamatory comments. The accused, Utkarsh Mehta, was arrested on Monday,” said Anil Pophale, senior inspector of Powai Police station.
During the investigation, Mehta revealed he was friends with the women, who were former employees of Banerjee and were sexually harassed by him. Mehta sought justice for his female friends by opening a fake social media accounts and posting their alleged ordeals as an imposter, said Pophale.
Mehta has been booked under relevant sections of the IPC for conspiracy (section 120B), forgery (section 465), forgery for purpose of harming reputation (section 469), using an electronic document for forgery (section 471) and defamation (section 500), along with relevant sections of the IT Act.
When contacted, Banerjee chose to comment through his legal team. Banerjee’s advocate Anirban Roy said, “The act of defamation on social media has cost my client huge losses in business. Since, no major company wanted to be associated with someone who was embroiled in the #MeToo movement, my client lost business of over Rs7 crore and more than 40 employees quitted the company.
The allegations made were in bad taste and if the said women had any problems with my client, they were at liberty to approach police or post their ordeals on social media from their own accounts. In this case, Mehta had made two of the four fake accounts and was nowhere related to Utopia Communications.”
