The cyber cell of the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate in Hyderabad arrested a 19-year-old degree student on Saturday for allegedly harassing a 35-year-old housewife by posting her phone number on Facebook.
The accused has been identified as Thummeti Ashok, who had been staying at LB Nagar earlier, and developed a grudge against the victim. The victim reportedly caught him and reprimanded him for using her family’s internet connection without their knowledge.
"Once he moved out, he thought that it would be difficult for anyone to trace his cyber activities. He then brought a pre-activated SIM card and created a fake social media profile in the victim's name," cyber cell inspector Mohammad Riyazuddin told Times of India.
Once the fake profile was created, he started posting pornographic images with captions reading, "for a good time contact me", and added the victim’s phone number.
For the past seven months, the victim had been receiving random calls from strangers asking her for the 'charges for the services' that she mentioned on Facebook.
When she asked a caller about how he got her number, she found out that it was posted on a fake Facebook profile.
It was then that the victim lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police.
Police traced the IP address from where the fake profile was created and found it to be a mobile device. He was allegedly using a mobile phone from Kapra in AS Rao Nagar, where he had moved seven months ago.
"He sent friend requests to random people to circulate the profile. Whoever saw the profile called the woman... The woman’s life had become miserable as she received calls day and night, and her personal life was at stake," Inspector Riyazuddin told The News Indian Express.
Ashok has been booked under sections 66(c) and 67(A) of the IT Act and remanded to judicial custody, after he confessed to the crime, police said.