Neighbours help family after Facebook harassment

KOLKATA: From proposing a temporary gate at the housing complex to meetings with senior cops and cyber experts, a neighbourhood in Jadavpur has decided to help the family, which was forced to install a CCTV camera outside their flat after mysterious posts on Facebook, chat windows and sex sites claimed that two women in the family provided sexual favours for money and shared their pictures, address and contact numbers.

A 40-year-old woman of the family, a victim along with her 27-year-old sisterin-law, said that they had decided to seek help from the public, overcoming fears that this might lead to social ostracising.

“When we were having arguments with outsiders at our doorstep trying to explain our predicament, we received support from our neighbours. Now, we have decided to share some of the evidence we have collected with our neighbours. We have already shared some CCTV footage with some neighbours,” she said.

The local police, meanwhile, have asked the family if they needed a security guard. “We are not sure if we can afford a guard. But then again, we might discuss this with our neighbours. Also, we do not want to put anyone in trouble. This needs a lot of discussion before it can be implemented,” she added.

Another family member said that instead of directly knocking on the main door, the outsiders are now knocking on the windows of their parents’ room at odd hours. “This happened after the cops started a probe on November 22 following the registration of the FIR. My father has become paranoid. I wish Lalbazar takes our case seriously,” she said.

Lalbazar sources said the cyber crime unit was trying to trace the IP addresses from where the fake profiles were created. “There are certain processes that involve data collection and verification from multiple agencies. We will not like to talk about the exact findings of the probe right now,” said an officer.

Earlier, speaking to TOI, the family members, who have been victims of both online and offline harassment since October 3, said that the 27-year-old woman, who got married this February, suffered the most. “We got a CCTV camera installed soon after the calls became frequent. But that did not deter people from approaching us. To our horror, we found all our precautionary steps were being uploaded on the social media. When we put up a notice outside the flat, warning outsiders to leave us alone, it was promptly uploaded with the claim that this was a gimmick and needed to be dismissed,” said another family member.