A 22-year-old man has been arrested by the Guntur Rural Police on charges of cyberstalking and blackmailing girls by threatening them to post their morphed pictures on social media platforms.
The accused has been identified as Kamarajugadda Raghubabu, a native of Nizampatnam mandal. He has been booked under Sections 354(A), 354(D) of IPC and Sections 66(C), 66(D), 67-A of the Information Technology Act, 2,000 and Amendment Act of 2008.
Modus operandi
According to police, Raghubabu, skilled in animation and multimedia, runs a small unit in Guntur. He allegedly managed a fake virtual phone number using ‘Numero eSIM’ app and created a WhatsApp account.
“The accused allegedly morphed faces of his classmates into explicit images and blackmailed many girls by threatening that he would post the morphed photos on social media platforms,” Guntur Rural SP Vishal Gunni told the media here.
With some girls blocking his number, Raghubabu allegedly created more fake WhatsApp and Instagram accounts using the app and circulated the morphed photos among his classmates, the SP said.
Police took up investigation acting on a complaint lodged by one of the victims at Nagaram police station.
The police nabbed the accused by tracing his original phone number with the help of the IT core wing, the SP said.
The SP complimented Bapatla DSP A. Srinivasa Rao, Repalle Rural Circle Inspector G. Srinivasarao and Nagaram SI M. Vasu and other staff for solving the case.
