Mumbai: A executive working for a foreign bank and a fine arts graduate from Pune have been arrested for allegedly posting obscene photoshopped pictures of a female colleague, Mumbai Police have said.
Amit Kharkhanis, 32, a civil engineer and MBA in Finance working for Standard Chartered Bank as Client Coverage Manager in Bandra-Kurla Complex, was arrested on Saturday. His alleged accomplice, Omkar Pradhan, 23, a fine arts graduate from Pune, was arrested on Wednesday. He was produced before a court and remanded to police custody until August 12.
Police said that the victim, a 28-year-old manager working in the same bank filed a complaint with the police on July 20 and an offence under Sections 509 of the Indian Penal Code (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 500 (defamation), among others and other relevant sections of the IT Act was registered.
The woman had apparently refused a marriage proposal from the bank executive who wanted to exact revenge for the rejection.
Police said a fake profile was created by Kharkhanis in the name of the victim and her photo, which was downloaded from her Facebook and whatsapp account, was misused.
“The said culprit had also posted her photographs on a porn website,” police said.
In addition, the culprit allegedly created an e-mail ID that was used to chat with male members through Yahoo Messenger pretending as if the victim was chatting with them.
Some of the male members were known to the complainant in her office, police said. The culprit had posted the photoshopped obscene photos of the victim on the fake Facebook profile and porn websites and had made obscene comments about her.
Since the culprit’s fake e-mail ID was hosted on a foreign server, it took a lot of effort to trace the cyber footprints, said the police, but eventually they nabbed Kharkhanis. Further investigation revealed that he had taken the help of Pradhan who morphed the victim’s photographs. The two had come to know each other through online chatting.
