Officials from the Hyderabad police's Cyber Crime department have arrested a 23-year-old man after he allegedly sent obscene messages to several women.
The accused identified as Mani Ratnam reportedly used Truecaller to gain access to several hundred numbers of women.
Ratnam would reportedly dial random numbers through the app, and save them once he realised that it was a woman.
He then went on to add the women to a Whatsapp group titled 'Romantic Thoughts Sharing', where he began sending them obscene content.
Mani Ratnam's alleged cyber abuse came to light when he began abusing a police sub-inspector.
According to reports, one of the victims registered a complaint on the Hyderabad police's 'Hawk Eye' app, after which SI M Mohan Babu began investigating the case.
“The sub inspector, who received information from a victim, called that number but did not get an answer. Later, the accused sent threatening messages to the SI via WhatsApp,” DCP, CCS, Avinash Mohanty told The New Indian Express.
However, Ratnam allegedly didn't stop, even after he learnt that he was abusing a police officer.
“He searched the officer’s Facebook account and found his gmail ID. He entered the Gmail ID and then put the SI’s phone number as password. Since the cop was using his own phone number as the password, the suspect could log in to the Facebook account,” an official told Deccan Chronicle.
The DC report adds that Ratnam then went on to pretend like a cop and sent messages to several women, and even took their photographs from social media.
Reports add that Ratnam had only studied till Class 10, and was a farmer by profession. He was a native of Andhra's West Godavari district. He was arrested and sent to judicial custody.