THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city cyber police have arrested a 49-year-old Palakkad native for allegedly creating and circulating a fake picture of General Education Minister V Sivankutty posing with controversial antique dealer Monson Mavunkal.
Pratheesh Kumar of Kannadi was arrested on charges of replacing the face of a cini actor, who had posed with Sivankutty, with that of Monson and later circulating it on social media. The image was morphed and circulated after Monson was arrested by the Crime Branch in financial fraud cases.
The police said the accused downloaded a picture of the minister posing with an actor from the former’s Facebook profile. The morphed image was then circulated to defame the minister by alleging that he was in touch with Monson.
Based on the complaint of the minister, the City Commissioner had formed a special team to crack the case. The police said they have identified an Ernakulam native, Sheeba Rajendran, who was also involved in the offence and efforts are on to arrest her.