Techie held for rape threats to cricketer’s baby

MUMBAI: An IT engineer from Hyderabad has been arrested for posting rape threats to the nine-month-old daughter of an Indian cricket star on Twitter after India lost their first match to arch rival Pakistan in the T20 World Cup on October 24.
Ramnagesh Akubathini (23), a native of Ranga Reddy in Hyderabad region who quit his job as a software programmer to pursue a PhD, had continuously altered his profile on social media to troll the cricketer before he was finally tracked down.
Akubathani was picked up by a Mumbai police team. The cyber police station at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) has booked him under Indian Penal Code sections 354(A) (sexual harassment), 506 (criminal intimidation), 500 (defamation) and under Information Technology Act sections 67, 67(B) (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in the sexually explicit act, in electronic form). He will be produced before the Esplanade Court on Thursday.
A cyber police officer said the accused used fake names on social media to cover his tracks while issuing the threats. “He was using technical means to conceal his identity in the online space to make it difficult for the investigation agency to trace him,” said the officer.
Akubathani trolled the cricketer and his wife and threatened to sexually assault their nine-month-old daughter for coming out in support of a team mate following the match against Pakistan which India lost. “Attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing one can do as a human,” the cricketer had said. Subsequently, he faced a barrage of online abuse.
Joint commissioner of police (crime) Milind Bharambe said a police team has brought the suspect to Mumbai. “People think they can go scot free by hiding their identity on social media and using a fake profile to make such threats. The cyber team is well equipped to track them,” said DCP (Mumbai-cyber) Rashmi Karandikar.
The Delhi Commission for Women has also taken suo motu note of the tweet on the basis of media reports and asked New Delhi police to register an FIR and arrest the accused.