‘Victims’ fear emboldens cyber criminals’

Highly placed sources at Chennai City Police told DT Next that most complainants wanted the objectionable material to be deleted from the social media sites and let the criminal go with a stern warning. “We can book cases under Section 66 E of IT Act if obscenity is involved. 

We can invoke various provisions of IPC to book the accused if blackmailing is involved.,” a senior CCB official said. “In most of these harassment cases, the accused would be a known person. Moreover, the complainants are scared of revealing their identity and request us to help them delete the content and warn the offender,” the official said. He said the cybercrime officials have been doing this to help the complainants. The flipside to this is that the offenders are emboldened to continue such crimes against women. 

“If the complainants are willing to take the matter to the court, then we can arrest the accused and that can send a strong message. Tracking down an accused is fairly easy now, thanks to advance intervention tools in cybercrime investigation,” the official added.

Technology should be a boon, observes judge: 

On June 22, Justice S Vaidyanathan, while dismissing a bail plea from a rape accused who threatened a girl to put her pictures on WhatsApp if she complains, had said, “Technological advancement should be a boon and should not be a bane to the existing peaceful living of the mankind. Therefore, WhatsApp users, especially women, need to be more careful before placing a picture as their profile photo and while sharing their photos to their friends or to other WhatsApp groups, as Prevention is better than cure.”

The parents of Vinu Priya, a teacher from Salem who committed suicide after morphed pictures were posted for the second time on Facebook, blamed the police for their daughter’s suicide claiming that the cops failed to act swiftly. In another twist, police have brought one of the college mates of Vinu Priya into the investigation ring as they suspect her involvement in the issue. According to sources, when Vinu Priya, daughter of Annadurai of Salem, was studying in a college in Namakkal, a young man had proposed his love to her. Meanwhile, Mythili, a classmate of Vinu Priya, reportedly had a liking for the man who was in love with Vinu Priya. Sources said that Mythili, currently employed in Chennai, was devastated by this and was waiting for the right time to take revenge on Vinu Priya. There is a speculation that she took Vinu Priya’s image from Annadurai’s Facebook account, created a fake account to settle scores. Investigators after pursuing this angle.