Class 12 student stalks air hostess trainee on Instagram, hides identity using VPN, caught

New Delhi, Apr 08: A Class 12 student was apprehended for allegedly stalking, threatening and harassing a 20-year-old woman on social media to have a sexual relationship with her, police said on Thursday.

On the basis of technical inputs, the 17-year-old boy was identified by the police as a resident of Delhi's Krishna Nagar, they said, adding that the case was solved within five hours of receiving the complaint.

The matter came to notice on Wednesday when the woman, who is pursuing an air hostess course, approached police with her complaint alleging that she was being stalked by a person on Instagram, who sent her obscene content on the social media portal''s messenger and insisted on having a sexual relationship with him, police said.

After examining the complaint, police found that the accused also sent her an email using spoofed email. The girl stated that she was being "extremely harassed" for three to four days by the alleged profile user, a senior police officer said.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered under Indian Penal Code Sections 354(D) (stalking), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) at Jagat Puri police station, said R Sathiyasundaram, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara).

"When we analysed the email ID, it was found that the culprit was using VPN (Virtual Private Network) for accessing the email account. After examining the collected information with the help of technical surveillance and cyber forensic tools, the identity of the alleged profile user was identified and subsequently he was apprehended," the officer said.

A mobile phone used for operating the email ID and Instagram account was recovered, the police said, adding that the juvenile was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board.