20-year-old collegian arrested for stalking

The city crime branch on Thursday arrested a 20-yearold collegian for stalking girls and forcing them to send him their obscene videos.

According to a crime branch officer, the accused, Akshat Doshi, is a resident of Mazgaon. He has confessed to threatening three girls through a social media app.

Reportedly, a 17-year-old girl complained to the LT Marg police that a man was threatening her that he would make her obscene videos viral. In her complaint, she stated that an unknown person had sent her an obscene video, which was morphed using her photos uploaded on her Instagram account. The accused threatened her with dire consequences if she did not yield to his demands of sending her obscene videos to him, which she did.

Sensing a mistake, the girl narrated the incident to her family, after which her father approached the LT Marg police to register a case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for stalking (354 D) criminal, intimidation (506) with word and gesture or act intended to outrage the modesty of a woman (509) and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. Police have also slapped the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

After tailing the accused for a few days, the crime branch finally zeroed in on Doshi on Thursday, when a CB officer checked his mobile phone and identified the accounts with which he was threatening the girl. The investigation revealed that he was using the mobile without a SIM card, since he knew that the police could track him through his mobile number.

According to the officer, Doshi confessed to stalking two more girls. The crime branch handed over the accused to the LT Marg police for further investigation.