HYDERABAD: Three individuals have been arrested in connection with an IT Act case involving the morphing of photographs of VBIT engineering college students in Ghatkesar.
According to sources, the primary suspect, Pradeep, who hails from Vijayawada, initially began conversing with a first-year student on WhatsApp and joined various college and class-specific groups. Police identified Pradeep and two other individuals as being connected to the case and arrested them in Vijayawada on Thursday.
It is believed that after gaining access to the college WhatsApp groups, Pradeep shared the phone numbers of other female students with two other suspects, who then harassed the girls using eight different mobile numbers and threatened that they would put morphed nude photographs of the students on social media.
Students blackmailed
They then blackmailed the students to make nude video calls. The suspects are also accused of creating WhatsApp groups and sharing the victims’ morphed pictures within them.
Due to the sensitivity of the case, many of the girls have not come forward with details and police are remaining tight-lipped about the investigation.
Ghatkesar police and cybercrime investigators are working jointly on the case and have apprehended the suspects while continuing to investigate further.