“The students, especially girls, have been traumatised with this incident,” said a former student of Law Department of the Nirma University, not willing to be named. (Representational Photo)
Almost a week after the National Commission for Women (NCW) raised the issue of hacking of an online class on Zoom application and a subsequent act of obscenity committed against the students of Nirma University, the Cyber Crime Cell of Ahmedabad registered an offence against an unknown person on Saturday night.
According to the FIR filed at the Cyber Crime police station, the incident occurred on April 6, when an unknown person hacked the ‘Zoom’ group id of the online class of Nirma University and started posting obscene videos and photos of himself. The accused allegedly masturbated and posted obscene pictures during the online class attended by law department students and faculty, between 5 pm and 5.30 pm. When the students and the teacher questioned the accused, he identified himself as “Faizaan Bakshi” while hurling expletives, as per the video seen by The Indian Express.
According to police, prima facie, they are treating the name “Faizaan Bakshi” as a fake one, even as an investigation has been launched by the Cyber Crime Cell. However, in the FIR, the accused has been named as an “unknown person going by the name Faizaan Bakshi” and he has been charged under Indian Penal Code section 294 B for obscenity and under sections of The Information Technology Amendment Act 2008.
The NCW wrote to The Gujarat Director General of Police Shivanand Jha and released a statement on April 20 saying, “The NCW has received message from a student of Nirma University in Ahmedabad, Gujarat stating that during an online class on Zoom online service, an unknown man hacked the group call and started masturbating. The commission takes cognisance of this incident and is disturbed by the cyber crime committed by the miscreants, and is concerned about the online safety practices and especially the security of women on internet. The commission has written to Shivanand Jha, DGP Gujarat, to probe into the matter immediately and strict legal action must be taken against the culprit.”
After the letter was received by the DGP, a team of Cyber Crime Cell of Ahmedabad Police visited the campus of Nirma University on April 21 and on Saturday, the executive registrar of Nirma University, G Ramchandran Nair, submitted a written complaint in the matter. According to the information provided by Nair in the FIR, a total of 120 students of the university were aware of the Zoom group id, used for connecting to the group call, which was subsequently hacked by the accused.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Nair said, “As already told to the police, there is no student by the name of Faizaan Bakshi in the law department. Since the incident, we have stopped using Zoom app for online classes and now we have google services.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Rajdipsinh Zala, deputy commissioner of police, Cyber Crime Cell, said, “We are yet to ascertain the identity of the accused or to confirm the name Faizaan Bakshi. It is possible to hack into a Zoom group call without knowing the group ID. There is already an advisory from the Union government against using the Zoom app.”
“The students, especially girls, have been traumatised with this incident,” said a former student of Law Department of the Nirma University, not willing to be named.