IIT Kharagpur student held for stalking Delhi schoolgirls

New Delhi: The Delhi Police arrested a student of IIT Kharagpur on Wednesday from Patna for allegedly online stalking and circulating morphed pictures of minor girls studying at a renowned Delhi-based school. Police also confirmed that the accused, 19-year-old Mahavir Kumar stalked and blackmailed almost 50 people, including minor students, adults, and teachers of the school. Further, he allegedly circulated their morphed nude photographs on social media, the police added.

As per the initial investigation, his modus operandi included spoofing phone numbers to calling and messaging victims, and creating fake profiles of them on Instagram. He also joined the school's WhatsApp groups and online classes to harass his victims, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), North Delhi, Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

Cops said that Mahavir used to call victims on their numbers using a mobile application and used to send WhatsApp messages from virtual numbers using the application. He also used to send these morphed photos of victims, using such mobile applications and later blackmailed them.

Police informed the accused was also using voice changing application while speaking to the victims on WhatsApp calls. "The complainant- school's manager, alleged that an online stalker is cyberstalking minor girls of the school and also sending WhatsApp messages and calling teachers of the school," the DCP told the Millennium Post.

After a months-long investigation, cops were able to nab the accused from his residence in Patna. Obscene photos and videos were also recovered from his phone. The action came on a complaint registered in August this year at the Civil Lines police station in Delhi. One mobile phone and one laptop have been recovered from his possession. Kumar was harassing and cyberstalking minor girls for the last three years.

Meanwhile, a case has been registered under the appropriate sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Information Technology (IT) Act.

The accused Mahavir is perusing B.Tech from one of the A-grade IITs and came in contact with one of the students of the school and started contacting her friends on Instagram and other social media platforms. The engineering student had good knowledge of mobile applications and used the same for harassing and cyberstalking minor girls.