KOCHI: The family members of a married man began receiving screenshots of messages he purportedly sent to a woman recently. Similarly, the woman’s family received messages she had allegedly sent to this man.
The messages, intended to create rifts within their families, pushed both marriages to the brink. But both the man and the woman insisted they did not know each other. The issue reached the Aluva cyber police station, where an investigation revealed that the entire devious plan was the work of a man acting out of his frustration of failure to establish a close relationship with the woman.
On Wednesday, Riju, 55, a resident of Nedumbassery, was apprehended by a team from the Aluva Cyber Police. “The accused (Riju), who lives with his wife and children, attempted to initiate an illicit relationship with the woman. When she resisted, he turned to online harassment,” a police officer said.
Explaining the modus operandi, the officer said Riju created fake Facebook accounts in the names of the woman and another individual. He used their photos as profile pictures and exchanged obscene messages, purportedly between them. He then sent screenshots of these messages to their relatives. To further enhance the credibility of his deceit, he used the WhatsApp number of a guest worker who had previously worked at his establishment.
“To deflect suspicion from himself, he tried to make it look as though the woman’s husband was responsible for these actions. Additionally, he used a Wi-Fi network other than his own to avoid detection,” the officer said. An investigation is on to determine if the accused has committed similar offenses in the past, he added.