: Continuing their clampdown on online stalkers, the North-West district police have arrested a mobile phone shop owner who used to allegedly morph pictures of minor girls and use them to blackmail the victims.
Rajesh Gambhir, 29, allegedly targeted girls in the age group of nine to 16. According to the police, he is involved in morphing photographs of at least 50 girls in that age bracket.
Complaint filed
The crime came to light when a 15-year-old girl’s father visited the Ashok Vihar police station on Thursday to complain about an unidentified person morphing his daughter’s photographs.
The accused had allegedly imposed pictures of the girl’s face on nude photographs of women before messaging them to her via WhatsApp.
The girl is a student of Class IX at a private school in the area and had immediately approached her father on receiving the pictures.
“Our probe revealed that the SIM card used for the crime was obtained on fake identity proofs. Sustained efforts led us to nabbing the accused from his home in Kishan Ganj,” said Mr. Singh.
To gain access to the Internet without being traced easily, Gambhir would allegedly use SIM cards obtained on the basis of identity proofs of his customers.
The mobile phones and SIM cards allegedly recovered from him threw up morphed vulgar photos of this victim as well as several other girls.
He also allegedly blocked the phone numbers of the parents of several of these victims as they had repeatedly called him to cease his behaviour.
Modus operandi
“Gambhir has revealed that he used to obtain pictures of girls by randomly typing in names on Facebook.
“He would save their pictures and impose pictures of nude women on their faces using a photo editing device,” said the DCP.
He would then contact these victims through Facebook or WhatsApp. He would threaten to post their morphed pictures on social media if they refuted his demands, the officer said.
The district police have in the recent past arrested a man who allegedly harassed over 1,500 women through vulgar messages and calls and another man who used to harass women by adopting a modus operandi similar to that of the latest case.