The accused, Rohtak resident Deepak, was arrested by Ghaziabad's Cyber Cell on Saturday. (Representational image)A 22-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stalking and harassing dozens of women in the NCR by using a software to make calls, which would mask his phone number.
The accused, Rohtak resident Deepak, was arrested by Ghaziabad’s Cyber Cell on Saturday.
Police said he had contacts and chats of more than 500 women in his phone at the time of his arrest. Police began looking for him after a woman lawyer filed a complaint.
“A case of cyber stalking and cyber bullying had been filed. The Cyber Cell team laid a trap and traced the IP address of the accused. It was found he would harass multiple women from different states. We are gathering digital evidence on his previous criminal activities,” said Kalanidhi Naithani, SSP, Ghaziabad.
Police said the accused, a class V dropout, would allegedly dial different combinations of numbers. If a woman picked up, he would save the number. Later, he would allegedly send lewd messages and texts on WhatsApp to the women. If they blocked his number, Deepak would allegedly use a software to make calls, which would show an untraceable international number. Police said the accused also threatened some women. The women are from Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and UP, among other states, said police.
The complainant told police she had been getting incessant calls and messages from a number which appeared to be originating from South Korea and Philippines. Police traced the accused to Haryana, based on the address listed by the internet service provider. The accused has been booked under relevant sections of the IT Act, police said.
“The cyber operation lasted one month, in which we tried to trace the accused’s location. From one of the WhatsApp calls, we enquired about the IP address. In such cases, it is possible the address is registered to a fake ID. In this case, the ID was found to be the accused’s own registration which helped us zero in on him. He was an expert in registering fake accounts on WhatsApp using other people’s numbers. We request people to carefully authenticate WhatsApp to prevent misuse,” said Abhay Mishra, in charge of Ghaziabad Cyber Cell.