Mumbai: The Vakola police have arrested a 20-year-old youth who blackmailed two minor girls to forcefully video chat with him and refrain him from uploading their morphed photos on the internet. The accused, Jaanam Porwal, was arrested from Ahmedabad after two First Information Reports (FIR) were registered against him at Vakola police station. Porwal was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Information Technology (IT) Act.
Two minor victims, both residents of Vakola, had approached police in January and February respectively. After lodging the complaints, police realised the modus operandi used in both crimes was similar. Police said the modus operandi was to target a victim by randomly selecting their photos from Instagram and morphing it on a pornographic photo. Porwal then sent a direct message to the girls on Instagram, asking them to video call him, where he demanded their photos in a compromising position, said PSI Aranye.
While investigating, police realised the accused had called the victims from an app-based phone service, whose Internet Protocol (IP) addresses kept bouncing, making it difficult to track. After a month long chase, PSI Aranye traced the number to a Canada-based server and arrested Porwal from Khanpur in Ahmedabad.
Anil Kumbhare, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 8) said, Porwal was a class 12 dropout but was extremely tech-savvy. “Porwal was criminally active since the last three months. We are requesting all social media users to safeguard their accounts and upgrade privacy settings. If they ever face blackmail in any form by such miscreant, please refrain from giving in to their demands and approach police immediately,” said Kumbhare.
Porwal has been booked under sections of the IPC for stalking (section 354d), word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman (section 509), defamation (section 500) and criminal intimidation (section 506) along with relevant sections of the IT Act and POCSO Act. He was produced in a local magistrate court and sent to police custody till Saturday.
