CHENNAI: A 17-year-old boy from Kanniyakumari who morphed images of a city-based minor girl and blackmailed her of leaking it on social media if she doesn’t respond to his obscene texts, was arrested by the cyber cell on Wednesday.
“The victim, a school girl, recently approached the police saying that she has been getting messages from a person on Instagram with morphed photos of herself, demanding to have sex chat with him, and had threatened that those photos would be leaked on internet, if she doesn’t cooperate,” said a police officer. Since the girl felt suicidal about the incident, police said that they gave counselled her as well as her parents, assuring that the culprit would be nabbed.
A case was registered and Instagram was approached to provide with details to trace the offender. The social media network and the network provider concerned understood the graveness of the offence and immediately shared details, said a police officer.
The police later tracked the person to Kanniyakumari, and was shocked to find out that the offender was also a juvenile, a 17-year-old schoolboy. Investigation revealed that he had already committed a similar offence, but was let off with a warning. The team brought him to Chennai and produced him before the Juvenile Justice Board, after booking him under the POCSO Act.
Speaking to TNIE, a police official said that the accused and the victim did not know each other personally. “He started following her on Instagram and later downloaded her images and morphed it in an obscene manner. He sent her those photos and demanded obscene chat from her. The cyber cell did a commendable job by bringing him to book,” he said.