NEW DELHI: Delhi Police have a registered a criminal case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, after journalist Rana Ayyub approached them and filed a complaint against unknown persons for using her name to post fake tweets, videos and morphed images.
The scribe filed her complaint at Saket police station, after which an FIR was registered.
"We registered an FIR under relevant sections of the IPC and IT Act, after the journalist approached us. This case would be looked into by the District Cyber Cell of South district," Romil Baaniya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) said on Saturday.
The matter came to light around a week ago after Ayyub was alerted to the fact that a Twitter handle, which mimicked the handle of a prominent news TV channel, had attributed a comment on the Kathua gang-rape to her that she never made.
The fake twitter handle and the fake tweet resulted in Ayyub getting abused and trolled on Twitter, forcing her to lodge a formal complaint with the police.
On April 23, Rana wrote on her official Twitter handle, "The last three days there has been a concerted effort in the form of multiple fake tweets, photoshopped tweets, morphed videos on twitter / fb that even the most sensible have fallen for and have gone viral. Those asking me to clarify, please use your own discretion."
Several journalist associations came forward to support Ayyub and asked police to "identify the source/s of the threats [against her] and take stringent action against them."