Mumbai man loses housing society polls, uploads rival’s profile on dating site

MUMBAI: She never thought that her victory as secretary of a housing society in the western suburbs would prove costly for her. A member of a residential society in Goregaon, who allegedly made a fake profile of his neighbour and uploaded it on a dating app to avenge his defeat, was arrested by city crime branch.
The 47-year-old Customs clearing agent was arrested for outraging the modesty of a woman and under Information Technology Act. In April, the complainant, who works in a private firm, was shocked when persons randomly called her up on her cell phone and sought her services.

“She initially thought it could be a wrong number or somebody may be playing a prank, but when the calls continued to disturb her at odd hours, she decided to approach police,” said senior inspector (unit 11) Chimaji Adhav.
Goregaon police registered an FIR and crime branch started a parallel probe. Police were initially blank on who could have uploaded her pictures and her mobile number. It was assumed that some person known to her may have played mischief, and police stared looking for possible suspects.
They collected personal details of the woman and learnt that she had recently won the housing society’s election as secretary against the Customs agent. But she said she did not suspect him, so police focused on the digital trail to nab the accused.
Crime branch, with the help of cyber experts, looked into the website of that app. Police found that her profile was uploaded at a particular time and hence zeroed in on few IP address which were in the loop. Police zeroed in one such suspected IP address and then his mobile number.
Based on this information, they picked up the agent from his residence. He initially denied it, but after sustained interrogation, he admitted to having uploaded her profile to take revenge, said deputy commissioner of police (crime) Akbar Pathan. Inspectors Ravrane, Rais Shaikh and Nitin Utekar, sub-inspector Vardaraj Parshi and others were part of the police team that cracked the case.